ECE 2799: Electrical and Computer Engineering Design: Patents/Standards/Regulations

Provisional – not examined, placeholder patent

Nonprovisional – examined – three types

1. Utility – Any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter or any new and useful improvision   Example: bicycle
2. Design – Protects the appearance of an item  Example: Disposable Water Bottles
3. Plant – A plant invented or discovered  that is asexually reproduced – incudes cultivated stock, hybrids, mutants  Example: “New Dawn Rose” – US plant patent number 1

Databases: Remember to look at both patent and non-patent literature

To review the basics of patents, and inventor and entrepreneurial resources, look at the US Patent and Trademark Organization (USPTO).  

• PatFT - is the USPTO Patent Full-Text and Image 

A few sample non patent databases:

Various business databases such as: IBIS, Gale, PRoquest, Business Source Elite and Nexus Uni

The Art of Patent Searching

1. Brainstorm terms describing the invention ( look at tech dictionary/thesaurus)
2. Keyword search – use Boolean operators AND/OR, “quotes”
3. Identify the Classification (CPC) Search Patent Classification Systems (uspto.gov)
4. Retrieve and review published patent applications from keyword, classification search
5. Look at related patents, cited references
6. Broaden  your search 
   1. look at foreign patents 
   2. Search non-patent print and electronic publications (ex: books, journals, technical catalogs, conference proceedings

Note: 

• Do not ignore evidence that you do not like, the purpose is to find what could be bad news and figure out how your idea is different/ better
• An absences of prior art at the time of search may not be permanent, embargos or hiddent patents/papers/ thesis/ or ideas may not come up at first so it is important to update your prior art/ state of the art search periodically