Patents grant rights to inventors in exchange for publicly disclosing their inventions.
The following things can be patented:
The patent must be useful, novel and non-obvious.
Standard UK patents give protection for 20 years (although they do need to be renewed after the first four years, and annually after that). Drug patents can be extended by an additional 5 years. Patents only apply in the country where they are patented e.g. a UK patent applies only in the UK. Someone could manufacture a similar product in Spain and sell it in Spain, but they couldn’t sell it in the UK.
References for patents are normally two letters followed by a string of numbers, e.g., GB2523978; US7345671; US3633. An (A), (A1) or similar at the end of the patent normally indicates an application - a patent application does not mean the patent has been awarded. In the UK a new patent number is issued when an application becomes a patent, in the US the same number is used.
With a few exceptions, patents are publicly available. In the UK, access to patents covering "military technology or prejudicial to national security or public safety" may be restricted. Patent offices in other countries will have similar restrictions.
A standard is a formal document, produced by a standards organisation, which establishes engineering or technical criteria, methods, processes, or practices. The Society for Standardization Professionals have a useful FAQ about standards, which explains the different types of standards and the jargon used in this field.
Try BSI Standards:
Try the Construction Information Service:
Try IEEE Digital Library (also called IEEE XPlore)
This resource includes journals and conference proceedings from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Coverage is complete since 1988, and with select content from 1872
For off-campus access select Institutional sign in, then select Shibboleth. Search for University of Dundee and login with username and password.
Abbreviation | Sources |
---|---|
API Recommended Practice ### API Standard YYYY-#### |
American Petroleum Institute publications. Read only versions of these are available on the API website. Create an account at http://publications.api.org/Default.aspx . Then login and browse to the standard. |
ASTM | American Society for Testing Materials. If you are a member of IMechE you can get ASTM standards through the IMechE library. (Undergraduate STEM students can get free membership of IMechE.) |
BS ####-#:YYYY BS EN #####:YYYY BS ISO ####:YYYY BS IEC #####-#:YYYY |
British standards available from the British Standard Institute (BSI).
|
Eurocodes | British Standards available from the British Standard Institute (BSI) and from the Construction Information Service. |
EN #####:YYYY | EN standards are European Standards from CEN, CENELEC or ETSI. Many of these are co-published as a British Standards. |
IEC #####-#:YYYY | Many IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) standards are co-published as British Standards a BS equivalent - see links at the end of this table. |
IEEE Std ####-YYYY IEEE P###.### |
IEEE standards are available from IEEE Digital Library (also called "IEEE XPlore"). |
ISO ####:YYYY | Many ISO (International Standards Organisation) standards are co-published as British Standards a BS equivalent. |
SD 2## SD 5## |
BREEAM Standards are available from the Construction Information Service |
The Society for Standards Professionals has links to many more standards providers, including government and trade-related bodies. You can use this page to decode unfamiliar abbreviations.