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The current release is Pronto Patent 1.2 (Universal, OS X 10.4-10.9). This upgrade is free to all owners of Pronto Patent.

Tips

To choose or create a folder to hold your downloaded patents, start the download (click Download) and you'l get a Save As... window in a few moments. Choose the folder or use the New Folder button. On your first run to see the button, click the triangle to expand the Save As... window.

To start the filename of each patent in the batch with a unique word, in the Save As... window change the file name. For example, change "Patent 1234567" to "Bottle Caps 1234567." Each patent in the batch will be named "Bottle Caps <patent number>".

Full text of each patent is saved in a separate html file along with the PDF. This can be turned off in preferences. The PDF, being all images, is not searchable for text.

Some patents are hundreds or thousands of pages long, which exceeds the USPTO's permitted download limits. To obtain these patents, we suggest you use USPTO's online order service.

Search in Pronto Patent can return thousands of patent numbers, depending on your search terms. The results are displayed as they come in; stop search at any time. You can also search using the USPTO web site: In Pronto Patent, choose "Open USPTO Search Page" from the File menu. The web page list of patent numbers and descriptions can be pasted into the Patent Numbers field for downloading (you don't have to edit out the descriptions).

To re-open the last search results window quickly, option-click the Search button.

Searching using the USPTO web site

In some circumstances, it is useful to search directly on the USPTO site, rather than using Pronto's built-in search. Here's how:

1. In Pronto Patent, choose File > Open USPTO Search Web Page (or you may want to use a different search page, depending on what kind of patents/applications you're looking for). 
    
2. Search using the web form.
    
3. Copy any part of the numbered table of results and paste into the left side of Pronto Patent's main window. It is okay to include the titles and line numbers, etc., in the paste—Pronto will extract the actual patent numbers.
    
4. Choose Patent Numbers or Application Numbers from the popup menu. Click Download.

Troubleshooting

If you get an error like "can't find keyid" try updating to the latest Pronto Patent version.