We update the database every Tuesday, the day patents are issued. Look at the Database Contents page for details. The PTO's offering on the Internet includes the full text of patents granted since 1976, and the patent number and current US classification for all patents granted from 1790 through 1975. Clicking on that button will retrieve the full-page image of the first printed page of that particular patent, along with navigational tools allowing the display of all the other pages. Help is available on the Boolean Search Help Page .
Help is available on the Manual Search Help Page .
This is the list of the patent issue years to use when restricting your search. Search the default range of the most recent years. Use an Issue Date Range search. The selected database must match the range of years you specify in your query. There are several ways.