Oh, no!!!! I was hoping that they would provide something in text format,
or at least a usable image for scanning/OCR, thence into MT. Not that I
want to put Alan out of business, or anything, but .... money is money.
As to multiple sources, I think it is good. You get your choice of search
options and download formats. For example, the IBM site was great when it
first came online, and I used it regularly. Now I practically never use it
because downloading their .gif images of patents simply takes too long and
involves too many steps, i.e., save it to the disk, open a paint program,
view it, and print it, all at one page at a time.
The more sites the better, and those with the most user-friendly features
will (hopefully) be rewarded somehow.
Just my thoughts
Lee Ness