U.S. Patent Search/Obtaining copies of Existing Patents?

Question

I am from the UK and would like to search for some U.S. Patents, and preferably get a hard copy of them. How can I do this, where is the best place to obtain these patents.

Thanks.

Answer 1

There are two places that I can think of:

http://www.google.com/patents

and

http://www.uspto.gov/

Both will let you look at and print patents.

I think that the uspto.gov may let you order a hardcopy for a fee.