This page provides links to manufacturers that offer free
viewers for TIFF image file formats. Company home page URLs are
provided as starting points in case the specific product page URLs
change unexpectedly.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office does not
endorse the views expressed or facts presented on these sites. Further,
the United States Patent and Trademark Office does not endorse any
commercial products that may be advertised or available on these sites.
Read more about TIFF Image
Viewers and Plug-Ins
Our Web site provides full text for patents
issued from 1976 to the present. We provide TIFF
images for all patents from 1790 (YES,
REALLY 1790) to the present. You can search on text in all elements
(fields) of the patent or select those fields you wish to search only
for patents issued since 1976.
The direct link to the Patent Search pages is
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html.
It is one of the options listed under "Patents" on the left side of the
USPTO home page.
You can only search on patent
numbers, issue date, and/or classification
codes for the pre-1976 patents. See How to Search
for tips and links to classification-based searches and to Patent and
Trademark Depository Library locations for local search resources and
training. See
classification help for more on the US Patent Classification system.
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IMPORTANT NOTE: If you can view a screen that
has a little rectangle with a red square, green circle and blue
triangle in it, or if you get a message in your browser saying that
some required software cannot be found, then you need to download and
install a TIFF image viewer for your browser that works with our TIFF
images.
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More detailed directions for viewing patent
images are on the website on the Patent Search page under "How to Access
Full-Page Images."
To view the images for any patent you must
(1) download and
(2) run the downloaded executable file to
install a TIFF image plug-in that supports G4 compression;
When you get a search result listing the
patent number, locate the image button near the top of the screen to
launch the viewer. To access the image database, just click "Search
Patents" on the lower right of http://www.uspto.gov and do a Search by
Patent Number. When the result comes back, click on the "Images" button
at the top of the page. Remember to read the detailed instructions
and to download and also install
the TIFF image viewer plug-in before attempting to view patent images.
You can order a copy of any patent online by clicking the
"Order Copy" button near the top of the patent search result page.
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