Created and maintained by the Louisiana State University Library, this bibliography of Web resources concentrates on patent and trademark sources. One in a collection of Webliographies, Patents and Trademarks offers a compendium of resources organized by topic. The Websites include links to other patent and trademark sites, general information, government and non-government organizations, and...

The US Patent and Trademark Office has been in existence since 1790, when it granted the first patent to one Samuel Hopkins of Philadelphia for "making pot and pearl ashes", which was a cleaning formula used in soapmaking. Over the past 215 years, millions of patents have been issued, and this creative site provides the original images from some of the original patent applications. Intended as a...

Maintained by Michael Colitz, a registered patent attorney, the Wacky Patent of the Month is an amusing Web site "devoted to recognizing selected inventors and their remarkable and unconventional patented inventions." The complete original patent document is given with each item covered on the site. The highlighted patent of December 2002 is the scarecrow; however, as can be seen from the...