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There are 3 main types of patents:
Quick Start Patent Search
You can start your patent search here using the box below. You can put in one or more keywords, or paste whole blocks of text that describe your project.
Like the Quick Start Patent Search above, Google Patents aggregates material from many different patent databases. Most patents also include lists of related patents, to help expand your search.
Some patent sites require a tiff image viewer, such as the free AlternaTIFF plug-in. Another option is to convert patents to PDF using pat2pdf.org.
WPI's Intellectual Property & Innovation Office has an Intellectual Property Inventory Catalog, which lists the patent applications and granted patents from WPI researchers.