History of ID students have been given an object to research. Some students are coming in with the patent number of the object. The primary source for patent information is the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Also, try searching Google Patents. The USPTO site covers 1790-present. Patents issued within the past few days are included. Google Patents does not include patents issued within the past 6 months.
A great print source for the history of designed objects is the 3-volume reference set, Phaidon Design Classics.
For more information, view this tutorial on how to search the US Patent & Trademark website.
Tip: Print Preview patent drawings-many of the image files are too large to fit on a single page.
