What is a Patent Art Print? Are they all the same?
Well, that depends on who you ask and where you look. In most cases a patent art print will fall into one of the following grades:
Grade A (Premium Grade):
This will be a print of a patent document that has been digitally enhanced from the original US Patent Office images. The illustration pages and the text pages should be printed on parchment paper. Excellent for display, framing and for use in research, this type of print will be void of the specks, tears and smudges from years of handling in the US Patent office, as found on the lesser grades. You can also expect that the images have been centered, straightened and the illustrations may have even have been magnified or rotated for better viewing.
Grade B:
This will be a print of a patent document as it comes from the US Patent Office, with illustration pages on parchment paper, and text pages on generic white paper. This grade of print is best reserved for use in research, as this type of print will feature the specks, tears and smudges from years of handling in the US Patent office. You can also expect black edges, which are typical of photocopies and document scans which are made with scanner’s cover open.
Grade C:
This will be a print of a patent document as it comes from the US Patent Office, on generic white paper. This tends to be the way inexpensive prints are being sold. This might be fine for research, but this type of print will feature the specks, tears and smudges from years of handling in the US Patent office. You can also expect black edges, which are typical of photocopies and document scans which are made with scanner’s cover open.
Grade D (The non-print option):
This is will be some variation of an electronic file, either sent in the mail as a CD, or via email as a PDF file. This will always be a copy of the patent document as it came from the US Patent Office. Nothing more. These images will feature the specks, tears and smudges from years of handling in the US Patent office and you can also expect black edges, which are typical of photocopies and document scans which are made with scanner’s cover open.
At Patent Place we pride ourselves in selling only the best patent art prints. Below are some examples of what they look like before our extensive process and how they look after.