Books, references, and periodicals are great ways to learn more about the inventing process, but always consult a qualified patent attorney or patent agent for the latest information on patents and patent law.
For more information on this, please refer to http://www.uspto.gov.
The National Inventor Fraud Center (http://www.inventorfraud.com/)
The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) (http://www.uspto.gov)
The USPTO's Independent Inventors Web site
Patent Café's Online Magazine (http://www.cafezine.com)
Inventors' Digest (http://www.inventorsdigest.com)
Invention & Technology (http://www.americanheritage.com/it/index.shtml)
The Inventors Network of the Capital Area, Bethesda, MD, USA
United Inventors Association, Rochester, NY, USA (http://www.uiausa.com/)
International Federation of Inventors' Associations, Geneva, Switzerland
The American Society of Inventors, Philadelphia, PA, USA (http://www.asoi.org)
Inventors' Digest List of Inventor Groups
Yankee Invention Expo (http://www.yankeeinventionexpo.org/)
Trade Show Week Online (http://www.tradeshowweek.com)
PatentEase (http://www.inventorprise.com/)
Patent Wizard (http://www.patentwizard.com/)
PatentPro (http://www.4patpro.com/)
CEO Express (http://www.ceoexpress.com/default.asp)
MIT Enterprise Forum of Washington DC (http://www.mitef.org/)
Entrepreneur Magazine (http://www.entrepreneur.com/)
Society of Manufacturing Engineers (http://www.sme.org)
Industrial Designers Society of America (http://www.idsa.org/)
Rapid Prototyping Information (http://www.cc.utah.edu/~asn8200/rapid.html)
Engineering Resources (http://www.er-online.co.uk/) (includes a good link page to many patent offices)
Global Spec Technical Resources (http://www.globalspec.com)
Community of Science for the Research & Development Community
National Technology Transfer Center (http://www.nttc.edu/)
Intellectual property licensing and technology transfer (http://www.2xfr.com/group.asp)
Licensing Executives Society (http://www.usa-canada.les.org/)
Library of Congress Copyright Office (http://www.loc.gov/copyright/)
Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/)
Literature search service (http://www.dialog.com/)
The U.S. National Trade Database (http://www.stat-usa.gov/)
The World Trade Center Institute, Maryland, USA (http://www.wtci.org)
MIT's Technology Review (http://www.technologyreview.com/)
The Journal Nature (http://www.nature.com/)
Science Magazine (http://www.sciencemag.org/)
Popular Science (http://www.popsci.com/popsci/)
Popular Mechanics (http://popularmechanics.com/)
Discover (http://www.discover.com/)
Scientific American (http://www.sciam.com/)
Reason (http://reason.com/)
The Skeptical Inquirer (http://www.csicop.org/si/)
Vision Venture Capital, a “seed stage venture capital firm,” in conjunction with the Newcastle Stock Exchange. Global Wealth Education and Ingage Communications have $600,000 for a great business idea (http://www.vvcinternational.com).
Dean Kamen (http://www.dekaresearch.com/)
Ray Kurzweil (http://www.kurzweilai.net/)
Invent Now, National Inventors Hall of Fame (http://www.invent.org/index.asp)
Rothschild Petersen Patent Model Museum (http://www.patentmodel.org/index.html)
The Baltimore Museum of Industry (http://www.thebmi.org/)
Smithsonian Innovative Lives
Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center (http://www.si.edu/lemelson/)
Invention Dimension (http://web.mit.edu/invent/)
The Smithsonian Institution (http://www.si.edu/)
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov)
Nolo law publishers (http://www.nolo.com)
Franklin Pierce Law Center's IP Mall (http://www.ipmall.fplc.edu/)
Patent law resources (http://www.patentlawnet.com/)
Intellectual property news and resources (http://www.intelproplaw.com/)
Boston College IP law page (http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/law/st_org/iptf/)
Intellectual Property Today (http://www.iptoday.com/)
IP Law & Business (http://www.ipww.com/)
IP Worldwide (http://www.ipww.com/ipabout.html)
The Intellectual Property Owners Association (http://www.ipo.org)
American Intellectual Property Law Association (http://www.aipla.org)
National Intellectual Property Researchers Association (http://www.nipra.org)
National Association of Patent Practitioners (http://www.napp.org/)
The Chartered Institute of Patent Agents (http://www.cipa.org.uk/home.html)
Patent Information User's Group, Inc. (http://www.piug.org/)
Patent Office Professional Association (http://www.popa.org/)
Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia (http://www.ipta.com.au/)
Product Development and Management Association (www.pdma.org)
Patent Bar exam resources (http://www.patentbarreview.com/)
United States Patent and Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov)
European Patent Office (http://www.european-patent-office.org/)
The UK Patent Office (http://www.patent.gov.uk/)
Japan Patent Office (http://www.jpo.go.jp/)
Australia Intellectual Property Office (http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/)
PCT home page (http://www.wipo.org/pct/en/)
Canadian Patents Database (http://patents1.ic.gc.ca/intro-e.html)
The British Library's Patent and Trademark page)
Intellectual Property Digital Library (http://pctgazette.wipo.int/)
Domain Name Dispute Resolution (http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/)
Information about bad patents that have been issued (http://www.bustpatents.com)
DNA Patent Database (http://dnapatents.georgetown.edu/)
Good links to patent databases, both free and commercial
Information about plant variety protection (http://www.plantpatent.com/)
Software Patent Institute and its Database of Software Technologies
Red Hat Inc.'s software related patent information
Wacky patent of the month (http://www.colitz.com/site/wacky.htm)
Wacky patent of the week (http://www.patentoftheweek.com/)
Reduced cost patent image service (http://www.getthepatent.com)
Patent translation services (http://www.patenttranslations.com/)
Patent pdf ordering service (http://www.patentgopher.com/)
Australian Patent Office (http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/)
Austrian Patent Office (http://www.patent.bmwa.gv.at/)
Belgian Patent Office (http://www.european-patent-office.org/patlib/country/belgium/)
Benelux Trademark Office (http://www.bmb-bbm.org/)
Brazilian Patent Office (http://www.inpi.gov.br/)
Canadian Intellectual Property Office (http://cipo.gc.ca/)
Czech Patent Office (http://www.upv.cz/)
Chinese Patent Office (http://www.cpo.cn.net/)
Croatian Patent Office (http://pubwww.srce.hr/patent/)
Cuban Patent Office (http://www.ceniai.inf.cu/OCPI)
Danish Patent Office (http://www.dkpto.dk/)
European Patent Office (http://www.epo.co.at/epo/)
Finnish Patent Office (http://www.prh.fi/engl.html)
French Patent Office (http://www.inpi.fr/)
Georgian Patent Office (http://www.global-erty.net/saqpatenti)
German Patent Office (http://www.deutsches-patentamt.de/)
Greek Industrial Property Organization
(http://www.european-patent-office.org/patlib/country/greece/index.htm)
Hong Kong Patent Office (http://www.houston.com.hk/hkgipd/)
Hungarian Patent Office (http://www.hpo.hu/)
Iceland Patent Office (http://www.els.stjr.is/)
Indonesian Patent Office (http://www.dgip.go.id/PatentDirectorat.htm)
Italian Patent Office (http://www.european-patent-office.org/it)
Japanese Patent Office (http://www.jpo.go.jp)
Korean Patent Office (http://www.kipo.go.kr)
Lithuanian Patent Office (http://www.is.lt/vpb/engl)
Luxembourg Patent Office (http://www.etat.lu/EC/spi/index.htm)
Macedonian Patent Office (http://www.ippo.gov.mk)
Malaysian Intellectual Property Division (http://kpdnhq.gov.my/ip)
Mexican Patent Office (http://www.impi.gob.mx)
Monaco Patent Office (http://www.european-patent-office.org/patlib/country/monaco)
Netherlands Patent Office (http://www.bie.minez.nl)
New Zealand Patent Office (http://www.iponz.govt.nz)
Norwegian Patent Office (http://www.patentstyret.no/english/index.html)
Peruvian Intellectual Property Office (http://www.indecopi.gob.pe)
Philippines Patent Office (http://www.dti.gov.ph/ipoo)
Polish Patent Office (http://saturn.ci.uw.edu.pl/up)
Portuguese Patent Office (http://www.inpi.pt)
Romanian Patent Office (http://www.osim.ro)
Russian Patent Office (http://www.rupto.ru)
Singaporean Patent Office (http://www.ipos.gov.sg)
Slovak Republic Patent Office (http://www.indprop.gov.sk)
Slovenian Patent Office (http://www.sipo.mzt.si/GLAVAGB.htm)
Spanish Patent Office (http://www.oepm.es)
Swedish Patent Office (http://www.prv.se)
Swiss Institute of Intellectual Property (http://www.ige.ch)
Thai Patent Office (http://www.dbe.moc.go.th/DIP/eng/index.html)
United Kingdom Patent Office (http://www.ukpats.org.uk)
United States Patent Office (http://www.uspto.gov)
World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) (http://www.wipo.org)
World Trade Organization (WTO) (http://www.wipo.org)