All Guides: Computer Engineering: Patents & Designs

Lynda.com: What is Patentable?

Global Design Database (WIPO)
Access over 1.3 million industrial designs data registered under the Hague international system.

Patents and designs are intellectual property rights that protect new inventions and product designs.

Patents are legal government grants given to an inventor that protects "new and useful inventions (product, composition, machine, process) or any new and useful improvement to an existing invention" (CIPO) for a limited time. A patent grants the right to exclude others from making, selling, using or importing an invention during the patent's life span.
A Guide to Patents is available online through Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO).
Design Patents, or Industrial Design protects the visual features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament to a finished product. "An industrial design must have features that appeal to the eye. If you want to register an industrial design, it must be original" (CIPO)
A Guide to Industrial Designs is available online through Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO).

Canadian Patent Database - CIPO
Search over 2 million Canadian patent descriptions and images.
U.S. Patent Database
Search over 9 million patents from the United States.
DEPATISnet - DPMA
DEPATISnet is the database of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office. It covers patents from around the world, including Canada and U.S.
Espacenet (ESO)
Access over 100 million patent documents from around the world, plus non-patent literature.
JP - PlatPat
The official patent database from the Japan Patent Office, includes utility models, designs, and trademarks.
Google Patents
Search full-text patent documents from Canada, U.S, China, European Patent Office and Germany.
PatentScope (WIPO)
Over 65 million patent documents from international patent offices, including Canada, China, European Patent Office, Japan, Korea, Russia, U.S. and the U.K.