Google adds patent search

Google has added patent searching to their bag of tricks - the advanced search screen may be found at http://www.google.com/advanced_patent_search.

I saw a blog entry about this in InfoToday Newsbreaks. Here's some more info on that entry:

Google Tackles Patent Searching
by Robert E. Buntrock
Posted On January 2, 2007

Like Alexander looking for new realms to invade and conquer, Google has entered the IP (intellectual property) arena, specifically the subset of patents. The new weapon (excuse me, product) is Google Patent Search (GPS), a beta service that provides access (for searching and for display) of more than 7 million U.S. patents. According to the FAQ, patents from 1790 to mid-2006 are included, but U.S. patent applications are not. Patent documents were OCR'd into the database; the usual caveats about this technology apply. Google said that it plans to expand the content to patent applications, international patents, etc.

I haven't tried this myself, has anyone else? If so, click the Comments link and let us know what you think.