Have you ever wondered who invented the zipper, the lawn mower - or maybe the eraser? Well now Google makes it easier than ever to search the over 7 million patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). With patents dating back to 1790, users can search inventions just like they search on Google today, or by criteria, such as patent number, inventor, or filing date. Our goal with Google Patent Search is to make this public domain government information more easily accessible using web search technology.

For more information on this new search capability, check out our blog post at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/now-you-can-search-for-us-patents.html.

To try out Google Patent Search for yourselves, just visit www.google.com/patents! You'll be sure to find everything from the bizarre to the fascinating.