Google Patents
Use Google Patents and the advanced search feature to find patents online
Canadian Patents
Search CIPO's Canadian Patent Database and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office for background information
U.S. Patents
Find American patents through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) classification categories or a basic patent search
The USPTO also has background information
Use Google Advanced search techniques to find government publications and reports online.
Limit your results to pdf format (reports are often published as pdfs) by adding filetype:pdf to the search box.
Limit your results to a specific site by adding site: followed by a site or domain name to the search box. You can't limit to multiple site, this must be done one site at a time. Examples of sites where you may find relevant reports include:
.gov.bc.ca - government of BC
.gc.ca - government of Canada
.gov - US government
.agr.gc.ca - agriculture Canada
.hc-sc.gc.ca - health Canada
.fda.gov - food and drug administration (U.S.)
.epa.gov - environmental protection agency (U.S.)
.nal.usda.gov - national agriculture library (U.S.)
Example: to find reports on "big pharma" on the fda website, you could enter the following terms in the Google search box:
"big pharma" filetype:pdf site:.fda.gov