Patents 101

By ESD Faculty

What is a patent?

  • “A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office” (for more information, see General Information Concerning Patents from the USPTO).
  • Patents are the most common way of protecting intellectual property that is physically tangible (e.g., projects you might do in our engineering program).

What is a trademark?

  • “A trademark is a word, name, symbol, or device that is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others” (for more information, see What is a Trademark or Servicemark? from the USPTO).
  • Trademarks are typically used to protect a unique name for a product, but not the product itself. For example, Dr. Jordan’s engineering education research lab is called STEAM Labsâ„¢.
  • “Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of ‘original works of authorship’ including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished” (for more information, see What is a Copyright? from the USPTO).
  • As a student, you automatically own the copyright for any text that you write (e.g., your project reports). However, copyrights are typically not used to protect engineering designs.

Why do I need to search for patents?

If you knowingly or unknowingly use intellectual property that is patented by someone else in your own commercial designs, you may become the target of lawsuits from the patent owner. Therefore, when designing new products it is best to search for the patents you may be infringing upon (either through the product as a whole or particular features, such as a touch display) so that you can either design around the patents or reach out to the patent owner to license the patent.

How do I search for a patent?

How to Conduct a Preliminary U.S. Patent Search: A Step by Step Strategy - web tutorial from the Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC)

Seven Step Strategy - outline from the PTRC

What patent databases should I use?