As a Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC), the Pennsylvania State University Libraries has a mission to support both our students and the public with finding patent and trademark information along with locating application materials.

Patent law is very important in design and engineering because patents can tell you if someone else already has a claim on a product design.

• Please note that while PhD students must always assign patent licenses to Penn State, undergraduate students typically do not!
  • The only exception is if a student receives compensation for their research by Penn State.

Where do you start?

Always begin with a "prior art" search by exploring different databases to find out whether someone else already has an idea similar to yours:

1. Explore engineering and business databases to find what the latest designs are and how they may be impacting business and industries.
2. Explore the Patent Public Search database of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
   1. If you are new to patent searches, select "Basic Search" to look for patents by keywords.
3. Explore patent applications and issued patents in Google Patents.
   1. Imported and scanned patents from the U.S. and several other countries. Only full text search for pre-1976 U.S. patents.

Sample topics:

• artificial intelligence
• composite materials
• electric powered products (e-revolution)
• high temperature mechanical characterization
• 3D printing