Intellectual property:
Intellectual Property in the United States consists of patents, trademarks, and copyright. These can be valuable to entrepreneurs in a variety of ways such as helping develop and refine a product, providing protection for ideas, developing branding and marketing materials, and surveying competitors' activities.
Patents: Types of Patents
There are three types of U. S. patents: utility, design, and plant. The utility patent is the most common type of patent as it is the patent which protects unique inventions. Each type of patent has its own numbering scheme.
Utility patents are completely numerical: 5,146,634
Design patents have the letter D before the number: D339,456
Plant patents have the letters PP before the number: PP08,901
Patent protection
Patents provide intellectual property protection for 20 years for inventions that are unique, useful, and non-obvious. In return for property rights, the inventor must provide detailed information about the invention in order "to promote the progress of science and useful arts" (U.S. Const. art. I, sec. 8).
Searching for patents can be very helpful in idea generation, surveying the competitive landscape, and finding technical information on an invention. More information patent searching is available in the Patent Libguide.
Patent index covering the areas of chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineering from 40 worldwide patent-issuing authorities.
Easy to navigate and search. Provides linked categories to help explore patents in a particular area.
Full text searchable international patents.
Full text searchable from 1976-Present. Requires installation of TIFF viewer plug-in in order to view images.
Provides alternative intellectual propertymanagement tools meant to enable sharing and reuse.
Videos from Professor Bryce Pilz from the University of Michigan Law School covering different aspects of patents, copyright, trademarks, and trade secrets.
Patent and Trademark Resource Centers (PTRC) are designated state, academic, and public libraries dedicated to disseminating patent and trademark information and support the intellectual property needs of the public. New Jersey's PTRC's are in Newark and Piscataway.
Resources for inventors and entrepreneurs from the United States Patent and Trademark Office
United States population demographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey includes "information on buying habits of America's consumers."
Contains survey reports, demographic studies, and data-driven analysis.
Data collected from U.N. national statistical authorities.
The Index measures the satisfaction of U.S. household consumers with the quality of products and services offered by both foreign and domestic firms with significant share in U.S. markets.