I saw that you have a page that discusses patent-related resources at http://unhinderedbytalent.com/Phi/archives/2006/01/27/random-bits-on-intellectual-property/. I wanted to suggest adding http://www.freepatentsonline.com to the page. This web site has free PDF downloading (instead of having to page through TIFFs like at the US PTO). It is by far the best free patent searching site.

Thanks a ton! That’s an excellent piece, and I immediately del.icio.us’ed it and passed it on to Arne and my network economics/open source/intellectual property course students.

You might also like this recent post by Theresa Nielsen Hayden.