These resources will help you identify, evaluate, and locate patents.
Understanding the structure of a U.S. patent: The first page of a patent contains basic information about the patent. References cited act as a bibliography of literature related to the patent. The abstract provides a background and summary of the invention, followed by applicable schematics and claims.
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Look up patents using the CPC or USPC classification system.
United States Patent and Trademark Office
PubChem Classification Browser
The Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) effort is a joint partnership between the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) where the Offices have agreed to harmonize their existing classification systems (European Classification (ECLA) and United States Patent Classification (USPC) respectively) and migrate towards a common classification scheme.