A patent is a property right granted by the Government of the United States of America, through the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), to an inventor, whether a person or a legal entity, such as a corporation or partnership.  A patent gives to it’s holder “the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the patented invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States”[1] for a period of 20 years in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted.  Patents cannot be renewed, though in some cases the term may be extended or adjusted as a result of delays occurring while the patent is pending before the patent office.  Contrary to popular belief, a patent does NOT grant the inventor the right to make, use, or sell the invention, but rather the right to exclude others from doing so.  The USPTO bears no responsibility for the enforcement of patent rights: the patent holder enforces these rights by filing a patent infringement lawsuit in federal court.  There are three types of patents: Utility Patents, Design Patents, and Plant Patents.  Utility patents cover inventions that function in new, unique ways to produce utilitarian results: inventions in this case include machines, chemical or manufacturing processes, manufacturing apparatus, electrical circuits, or compositions of matter.  Design patents cover only the ornamental appearance of an item.  Plant patents cover new sexually or asexually reproduced plant varieties.

Patents are important in research because they may be the only source of technical information available from a company regarding their research. 

The primary sources for finding patents and patent information are:

• The USPTO website for U.S. patents.  The USPTO's database includes the full text of all patents issued since 1790.  All patents are searchable by patent number and classification number.  Patents issued since 1976 are searchable by keyword in the full text of the patent.  Images are in TIFF format, which requires a special plug-in for your browser, such as "alternatiff" (www.alternatiff.com).  If you can't install a TIFF reader, US patents can be converted to Adobe pdf fromat & downloaded on-line at www.pat2pdf.org.  This is NOT a patent search site -- you must already have the patent number to use this service.

• The European Patent Office website for international patents. The EPO features a searchable database of patents issued by more than 50 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan. 

  • Japan and Germany issue patents faster than the United States.  Search these countries' patents first for the most recent breakthroughs.

  • The EPO indexes US patents starting from 1920, allowing you to search by author, title, or abstract words.  Use EPO for finding US patents issued between 1920 and 1975.

   

The Galvin Library has several reference books on patents, including: