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Intellectual Property Research

Resources for Intellectual Property Law Research, including patent law, trademark law, copyright law, and trade secret law

Variety of Intellectual Property Protection

  • Patents protect inventions.
  • Trademarks protect brand names and logos used on goods and services.
  • Copyrights protect an original artistic or literary work.
  • Trade Secrets are information a company keeps secret to have an advantage over competitors.  Unlike patents, trademarks and copyright, there is no mechanism to register trade secrets under U.S. law.

Basic Facts: Trademarks, Patents, and Copyrights—short (8:37) video introduction, from the United States Patent & Trademark Office (2016)

The UW Engineering Library is a United States Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC), as designated by the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO):  Patent and Trademark Information