What is a patent?
Intellectual Property Office says:
"A patent protects new inventions and covers how things work, what they do, how they do it, what they are made of and how they are made. If a patent application is granted, it gives the owner the ability to take a legal action under civil law to try to stop others from making, using, importing or selling the invention without permission. This may involve suing the alleged infringer through the courts, which is costly and time consuming because it involves expert legal advice. The patent owner needs to be able to pay for this civil legal action and advice themselves, although they may get some costs back if they win their case."
Google Patent Search
Patent Organizations
- Directory of Intellectual Property Offices (WIPO)This site contains a alphabetical list of Intellectual Property Offices.
- European Patent OfficeNews and information about the organisation. Esp@cenet is the main way to search for patents from any European country.
- European Patent Office esp@cenetEurope's network of patent databases.
- Patent Databases, Registers & Gazettes [EPO]Listing by countries/organizations
- Turkish Patent InstituteYou can search and accsess the Patent database of Turkish Patent Institute.
- US Patent & Trademark OfficeThe USPO has details of American Patents and Trademarks, along with a facility to search US patents.
- World Intellectual Property OrganizationInformation about the organisation and its services. Also see their IP gateway WIPO Gold and database Patentscope.
Patents, Trademarks & Copyrights
NPC (National Paralegal College) Patents, Trademarks & Copyrights web site offers a wide legal information about;
- Intellectual Property,
- Copyrights,
- Trademarks,
- Patents,
- Trade secrets
