Christina Byrne assists
Mechanical Engineering
student Ralph Chestine
in interpreting a patent.

Patent and Trademark Research at the University of Washington

Christina Byrne, Engineering Library

From sexless oysters and jet aircraft designs to virtual reality devices, from famous coffee names to software giants, Washington state is home to many patented inventions and trademarked products and services. Many Washington inventors and entrepreneurs begin their quest for a patent or a trademark at the UW's Engineering Library.

The Engineering Library is one of 78 Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries (PTDLs) located around the United States. The PTDL program was established by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to increase the dissemination of patent and trademark information and to enable the public to access materials for conducting patent and trademark searches. Engineering Library reference staff are available to provide research assistance, although staff may not dispense legal advice or perform the actual searches. Those not desiring to conduct their own searches may contact Research Express, at 616-4838 or resxp@u.washington.edu, for a fee-based search.

The PTDL collection includes U.S. patents from 1966 to the present, and the Official Gazette from 1872 to the present, as well as other patent and trademark research and reference materials. Two CD-ROM workstations provide access to the CASSIS (Classification and Search Support Information System) files, which allow for searching by patent subject classification, inventor name, or company. This system also includes files of federally registered trademarks and pending trademark applications.

Inventors use the PTDL collection to determine whether their ideas are patentable or already patented and to document the relationship of their inventions to others in the same field. Those seeking to name a product or a service check the trademark databases to verify that their word, phrase, or design is not already registered or pending with the Patent and Trademark Office.

For more information about patents and trademarks or about the PTDL collection at the Engineering Library, e-mail englib@u.washington.edu; call 543-0740; or visit the Engineering Library's home page.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office's home page includes electronic versions of basic patent and trademark information booklets and links to other intellectual property Web sites. To learn about sexless oysters, read U.S. patent number 4,834,024 or Adam Woog's book, Sexless Oysters and Self-Tipping Hats: 100 Years of Invention in the Pacific Northwest.