Patents
Engineering Research Guide : COAST : Electronic Resources : Site Index : Help

What is a patent?
Why are patents useful?
How do I find patents?
Are there tutorials for searching for patents?
What are some books about patents?

What is a patent?
A patent is a document granted by a government which gives an inventor exclusive rights (for a limited time) to his or her invention and excludes others from making, using, or selling  invention without permission.

In return for this exclusive right, an inventor must disclose how the invention works in detail (enough detail so a person in the field could reproduce the invention). Similar to property, a patent can be bought, sold, or licensed. Patents are territorial right and are only valid in the country where the patent was granted. 

When the patent has expired the public can use the technology for free. 

There are three types of patents:

• Utility patents: New and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter. Most patents are utility patents.
• Design patents: New ornamental design for an article of manufacture.
• Plant patents: New variety of plants, including spores, mutants, hybrids, or seedling.

Why are patents useful?
Patents are great sources of information about new technology and inventions.  In order to be granted a patent, inventors must fill out an application and describe their invention in detail including diagrams.  Both applications and patents are searchable and FREE.

• United State Patent and Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov/patft/)
  Search for issued patents (full text since 1976, full page image since 1790) and patent applications (published since March 2001) granted in the United States. 
  Try the advanced search or if you have the patent number you can use the quick search.  The database can be searched by abstract, application date, application type, assignee name, attorney or agent, description/specification, inventor name, issue date, patent number, title, and many other fields. Use the extensive help screens.
  
• European Patent Office (http://ep.espacenet.com/)
  You can search the European Patent office, the Japanese patent office, or a Worldwide Patent Database.  This Worldwide database covers 45 million patents from 71 countries (including the United States) and is updated weekly.  The years covered varies by country, most back at least 40 years to present.
  This database can be searched using keyword, persons, organizations, publication number, application number, or classification. Try the advanced search. You can also search the classification system, to find synonyms or keywords.

Are there tutorials or more information for searching?
There are a number of free tutorials that can help you run learn how to do a patent search.

• Louisiana State University Library Patent Tutorial
• University of Central Florida Libraries: Research US Patents on the Web
• McKinney Engineering Library at University of Texas, Austin: Patent Searching Tutorial and Guide to Online Resources and Information
• McKinney Engineering Library: International Intellectual Property Searching on the Web--Exploratory Tutorial
• Cornell Unviersity Engineering Library: Patent Tutorial
• PennState Schreyer Business Library's Patent Search Tutorial 

What are some books at CSULB about patents?

• The librarian's Guide to Intellectual Property in the Digital Age: Copyrights, Patents, and Trademarks by Timothy Lee Wherry (2nd floor Z653.7.W54 2002)
• What Every Engineer should know about Patents by William Konold (3rd floor KF 3114.8.E54 W48 1989)
• Patents in Chemistry and Biotechnology by Phillip Grubb (4th floor T211.G78 1986)
  
  Note: Use COAST to find more books.

Questions? Email or set up an appointment with the Science and Engineering Librarian.