Further Resources
Small Business Information
- North Carolina Small Business and Technology Development Center
http://www.sbtdc.org/
Helps small business owners (and those interested in starting a business) by providing management counseling and educational services to small and
mid-sized businesses throughout North Carolina from 17 locations across the state. Most services are free of charge, and all SBTDC services are
confidential.
- Small Business Administration
http://www.sba.gov/
Helps small businesses get started and grow by providing a wide variety of services, from help with financing and laws & regulations to putting you in touch with other local businesses and resources. The North Carolina office is located in Charlotte but runs workshops at various locations throughout the state. See the Events Calendar on its web site for upcoming dates and locations.
- Secretary of State's Office, Corporations Division
http://www.secretary.state.nc.us/corporations/thepage.aspx
Want to register your company name and logo for business just within the state? See the Guidelines to Incorporating. (If you intend to conduct business across state lines, you'll want the protection of a registered trademark--see our Trademarks page). Want to search and be sure another company doesn't already own the name you want to use? See the Search... section.
- SCORE
http://www.score.org/
A nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide.
Resources for Business Research
- Spectrum of Product Development
/ptdl/proddevelspectrum.html
Need to do research on the basic science to make your invention work, or the market for your invention to tell whether it's economically viable? Have a look at this page that shows the wide variety of databases to which the Libraries subscribes that are useful for various stages of your product development.
For Inventors
- USPTO's Inventor Resources page
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/iip/index.htm
- Complaints Against Invention Promoters/Promotion Firms
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/iip/complaints.htm
Check whether a firm or agent you're considering has had complaints made against it/him/her.
- National Registered Patent Attorney/Agent Search
http://des.uspto.gov/OEDCI/
Search for local help by zip code.
Alternative Resources for Patent Research
The three most common reasons to use other web sites than the USPTO's are 1) for ease of printing all pages of a patent at once*, 2) to access older patents and 3) to access non-U.S. patents. There are dozens of Web sites that offer various benefits. NCSU Libraries provides this selected list for our patrons' convenience but endorses none of them. Users should note many of these sites charge for some or all of their services.
*While the USPTO site does allow patent downloading, several other sites allow users to download and print patents in more friendly formats, such as PDF files. Some sites provide free downloads, but response time is slow. Other sites are fast, but charge a fee. Some sites even have extra functionality for patent searching and retrieval.
- Patent Logistics' Free Patent Fetcher
http://free.patentfetcher.com/
- pat2pdf.org
http://www.pat2pdf.org/
- Google Patents
http://www.google.com/patents?hl=en
- Patent Lens
http://www.patentlens.net/
An independent, public-good global resource for increasing patent transparency. Enables full-text searching of more than 8 million patent documents from the U.S., Europe, Australia and WIPO, including their status and counterparts in up to 60 countries. Plus there's more, including technology landscapes.
Of General Interest
- North Carolina State University Patents
/exhibits/patents/
A recent exhibit from NCSU Libraries' Special Collections Research Center about the patents awarded to affiliates of the University.
- Online Guide to Plant Intellectual Property
/guides/plantintellprop/
Newly developed plant varieties in the U.S. can be protected by different kinds of patents or USDA regulations. This page describes why and links to further resources.
- Sound Marks
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ahrpa/opa/kids/kidsound.html
Did you know it's possible to trademark a sound? This page lists all of the sound marks issued by and under review at the USPTO.
- Can you recognize these famous trademarks?
/ptdl/trademarks/trademarkfun.html
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