Generally, you can find patents in a government database of the country or union where the patent was filed. Most US students rely on patent offices from the US, Canada, and the European Union.
SciFinder Scholar also allows you to search for patents!
Essentially, a patent = protection.
Within the United States, patents were authorized by the Constitution of the United States - Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8: "The Congress shall have power... to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries".
In order for something to be "patentable", it needs to meet 4 basic criteria.
There are three types of patents:
A U.S. patent gives you, the inventor, the right to “exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” an invention or “importing” it into the U.S. A plant patent gives you additional rights on the “parts” of plants (e.g., a plant patent on an apple variety would include rights on the apples from the plant variety). What is granted is not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import the invention, but the right to stop others from doing so.
- US Patent and Trademark Office
An odd thing patent searching is that you should not use keywords that describe how the invention will be used. Rather, you need to use keywords that describe how the invention will work.
Try using the tips below to help you out: