The USPTO has been taking some amazing technological steps in the last few years. This is the most recent. Earlier this year they, for the first time ever, released a search function for the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (which is a >2000-page tome that doesn't exactly read like a John Grisham novel). Several years ago, they gave Google their entire database of patents, patent applications, and trademarks. Given that they're a government agency, this progress is absolutely astonishing.
