Guides: ME 2300: Introduction to Engineering Design: Patents

Related Guides

Databases by Type: Patents

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Types of Patents

There are 3 main types of patents:

Utility: for the new and useful process, machine, manufacture, the composition of matter or any new and useful improvement thereof.
Design: appearance of an item is protected. Patent must be an original design for a manufactured item.
Plant: for invented or discovered and asexually reproduced distinct and new variety of plant, including cultivated sports, mutants, hybrids, newly found seedlings, and living organisms.

WIPO Manual on Open Source Tools for Patent Analytics

Find Patents

Google Patents This link opens in a new window
Search and display U.S. patents 1790 to the present using the technology that powers Google Book Search, with the ability to scroll and zoom in on text and illustrations.
Coverage: 1790-
Full Text: Yes
FPO (Free Patents Online) This link opens in a new window
Provides free patent searching of U.S. and European registrations. Benefits include patents in PDF format as well as hyperlinked classification searching.
Coverage: 1976-
Full Text: Yes
PatentScope This link opens in a new window
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) PATENTSCOPE Search Service enables users search fulltext of over 1.6 million published international patent applications.
Coverage: 1978-
Full Text: No

USPTO/ United States Patent and Trademark Office
The USPTO site houses full text for patents issued from 1976 to the present and PDF images for all patents from 1790 to the present.
Additional Patent Databases

News Articles about Patents

Look for articles about new patents on tech news websites like cnet.com and Patently Apple. Often these sites will give the patent number. Search for the patent number in GooglePatents to find the full text of the patent. For example, the cnet.com article Apple patent hints at 'bone conduction' headphones mentions the patent number US9363596. Searching for this number in GooglePatents, we can find the full text of the patent.