What is a patent?
A patent is an agreement between an inventor and the public, represented by the federal government: in return for a full public disclosure of the invention the inventor is granted the right for a fixed period of time to exclude others from making, using, or selling the defined invention in the U.S.
What is a trademark?
A trademark is a word, phrase, logo or other graphic symbol used by a manufacturer or seller to distinguish its product or products from those of others.
Garner, B. A., & Black, H. C. (2009). Black's law dictionary (9th ed.). St. Paul, MN: West.
For more information about patents, visit the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) effort is a joint partnership between the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) where the Offices have agreed to harmonize their existing classification systems (European Classification (ECLA) and United States Patent Classification (USPC) respectively) and migrate towards a common classification scheme.
How to conduct a quick trademark search at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website.
Google Patents coverage includes:
If you are having issues searching the USPTO databases, try searching Google Patents to find the US patent number. Then go back to the USPTO and search by patent number.
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