Huge Step for PTO Online
Patent on the Web Upgrade
The USPTO has upgraded the USPTO Full Text and Image Database. It now uses PDF images instead of TIFF images which provides several new benefits including the ability to print full documents. Patent images may be viewed, printed and saved using a standard PDF-equipped browser. A separate TIFF plug-in is no longer required. In addition to the standard page-by-page viewing, users may now also click on a “Full Document” button to retrieve all the patent images at once.
This enhancement will make the Patent Office search system much more accessible, and should encourage people to use the PTO’s website more frequently than other third-party sites like Google, Patent Fetcher, or PAT2PDF. I am very happy about this change.