Patents
A patent is a right granted by a national government, upon application and in exchange for a complete disclosure of an invention that would allow a third party the ability to practice the invention. A patent grants to the applicant the exclusive right to make, use, or sell the claimed invention for a limited period of time.
Although McGill does not have patents, web-based patent search and retrieval systems are available for preliminary patent searches.
Members of the McGill community now have access to Derwent Innovations Index, a comprehensive database of international patent information.
Web Resources
- USPTO (United States)
Full-text patents from 1790 onwards and patent applications from March 2001 on at no charge. - Espacenet (European Patent Office)
Worldwide patent database, many with full-text page images, available at no charge - Canadian Patents Database
Canadian patent descriptions (bibliographic information and abstracts) plus images from 1920 to the present at no charge.
Office of Sponsored Research
Research professionals from McGill University may contact the Office of Sponsored Research to disclose an invention and investigate its commercialization potential.
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