The tutorial below contains basic information about patents as well as how to search for patents in a worldwide patent database called Espacenet. This tutorial was made in the Spring of 2024 for a mechanical engineering class, but the patent searching strategies presented should be helpful in other subject areas. Espacenet is one patents database; there are others that might be helpful to you as well, such as the USPTO's Patent Public Search (for US patents and published applications only), Google Patents, or The Lens.
Because inventions can be publicly disclosed in non-patent literature (journals, books, conference proceedings) as well as patents, consider broadening your prior art searches to these materials as well. Please email me at jgroff@clemson.edu or schedule an appointment with me (see box at bottom left) for individualized assistance.
NOTE: The first seven minutes of this tutorial talks about patent basics. If you want to skip ahead to the live patent searching demo, start the video at minute seven.
