Patents and Trademarks  

James Branch Cabell Library

Call: 804-828-1110
Toll-free:  1-866-VCU-BOOK
Fax:  804-828-0151

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PO Box 842033
Richmond, VA 23284-2033

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About Patents
The United States Patent and Trademark Office issues patents to protect an inventor's exclusive right to profit from his or her own ideas. For a fixed, non renewable period of time, the inventor can exclude all others from making, using, or selling the invention without authorization. To receive a patent, an invention must be new and useful or significantly different from previous inventions of its type.  The government currently issues three types of patents: utility, design, and plant patents. To learn more, see these publications:

Basic Facts about Patents | Types of Patents | Frequently Asked Questions

About Trademarks
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. To learn more, see these publications:

Basic Facts About Trademarks | Where Do I Start? | Frequently Asked Questions

Need assistance with your search? Contact a U.S. Patent and Trademark Depository Library, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Public Search Facility, or the Inventors Assistance Center.