Research Guides: MATSCEN 4381.01 Design and Professional Practice I: Patents and Innovations

The Role of Patents for Research & Innovation in Engineering

What is a Patent?
A patent is a type of intellectual property protection that gives the inventor "the right to 'exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling' an invention or 'importing' it into the U.S.".
What is the relevance of patents for research and innovation in engineering?
A patent protects original ideas. It also protects the software code, a product design, a mobile application or a manufacturing process resulting from an improvement to already existing ones.
Why Intellectual Property is essential for business?
Explore resources for small and medium-sized enterprises covering intellectual property rights.

Google Patents
You can search by key words in a "Basic Search". If you already know more about the topics or patents you are searching for, use the "Advanced Search" features, for example: by inventor, by date, by classification.