Patent Information on the Internet

Abstract

Many people believe that the entire world's information is somehow accessible on the Internet and costs virtually nothing to retrieve. Others view the Internet as a slow, overrated mechanism for obtaining information that may or may not be reliable. For the information specialist, the Internet has become another useful resource for obtaining information. This article is an attempt to provide an overview of free and commercial sites containing patent databases and to outline the possibilities as well as the limitations of these patent information sources. In addition to this written article, we have set up a Web site (http://chemsear.ch/chimia/) which contains all the important links as well as additional information about patents on the Internet.