This is pretty interesting – You can now search U.S. patients using Google. The U.S. Patient and Trade Office does have their own search interface, but like most things made by the government, it’s clunky and hard to use. Google Patents on the other hand, makes it as easy to for patents as it is to do a web search.
I think this is awesome – easy access to information like this will help inventors and innovators and make it easier for technology patent watchers to do their work. It should also make for some good entertainment. Try searches for banana or hotdog, and see what I mean.