The IBM Intellectual Property Server only contains patents from 1971-present. No additional plug-in software is required, but images do not load quickly and printout quality can be low resolution. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website contains every issued U.S. patent, 1790-present.
Printouts are of high quality and images load relatively quickly.
This plug-in is compatible with Netscape Communicator 3.0 and higher, Internet Explorer 3.0 and higher, and Opera 3.51 and higher. Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT 4.0 is required. Installation takes about a few minutes and instructions are below. Click one of the download links. Depending on the browser you are using, a pop-up box may appear at this point, asking you whether you want to run the program from its current location or save the program to disk.