Patent Searching  

By working through this guide you should learn something about what a patent is, why you should look for patents, and how to search for patents. You will find they are different creature from journal articles.

Disclaimer: The information in this guide and the help you can get from library staff is with respect to someone searching for patents; for legal advice contact a patent lawyer or agent. Try canada.lawyers.com; in the Yellow pages try lawyers - intellectual property or patent agents. UW researchers should contact The Office of Research - Waterloo Commercialization Office while off-campus inventors may want to contact the Canadian Innovation Centre. We neither recommend nor endorse any particular lawyer or agent.

If you're starting out you want to know:

• What is a patent?
• Why search for patents?
• Where do you search for patents?
• How do you search for patents?
• Want an alternate explanation?