A one hour online training course that provides a certificate of completion (required for some Patent Pro Bono Programs).

Harvard University's How to Read a Patent tutorial shows the parts of a patent and includes code descriptions and definitions.

Short guide from the University of Minnesota on the basics of patents.

A longer tutorial from the University of Minnesota on patent searching.

An interactive tutorial on patent information and how to use the worldwide Espacenet database.

The Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) is an extension of the IPC and is jointly managed by the EPO and the US Patent and Trademark Office. It is divided into nine sections, A-H and Y, which in turn are sub-divided into classes, sub-classes, groups and sub-groups. There are approximately 250 000 classification entries.