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According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a patent is an intellectual property right granted by the US government to an inventor:
"to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States"
for a "limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted."
The United States Patent and Trademark Office provides full-text information on patents issued from 1976 to present and images of all patents issued from 1790 to present.
The European Patent Office's (EPO) Espacenet offers access to patent documents worldwide including information about inventions and technical developments.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) allows you to search millions of patent documents worldwide.
Patent search help:
Searching for patents is called a patent search, a patentability search, or a prior art search. To learn more about searching and understanding patents, try these resources:
An excellent and thorough guide to the use of patents and trademarks in the research process, particularly for engineering, business, entrepreneurship, and related disciplines.
eFunda stands for "engineering fundamentals." This site provides a wide variety of reference data on materials, processes, conversions, formulas, and calculators.
Critical data on inorganic and organic compounds and pure substances. Features physical, thermodynamic, mechanical, and other key properties. Originally published from 1926-1930 for the National Research Council, now available in full-text searchable electronic format.
Originally published by Smithsonian Institution Press in 1954, this classic reference source comprises 901 tables of general interest to scientists and engineers, and of particular interest to those involved with physics in its larger sense.
Start by asking, "If these data exist (and they may not!), which organization would be the most likely to collect them?" You might have to piece the data together from a number of secondary sources if no one collects the exact data you need. Remember that data and statistics can often be found in journal articles, so don't forget to search article databases.
Database of the US government’s open data. Provides federal, state and local data, tools, and resources to conduct research, build apps, design data visualizations, and more.
A global directory/catalog of research data repositories covering all academic disciplines. Search by topic or keyword to find a database relevant to your project.
Statistics can help put your project in context -- for example, if you're working on a project to purify drinking water, you might want to know how many people in a particular country have access to clean drinking water.
Provides a single point of entry for all United Nations statistical databases -- find stats on demographics, health, environmental indicators, economics, education, and more.
Provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 world entities.