Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

Intellectual Property, Secrets, And Declassified Information. Mastering United States Government Information: Sources And Services, Christopher C. Brown, Libraries Unlimited, 2020., Suzanne Reinman

Journal of the Patent and Trademark Resource Center Association

No abstract provided.

Questioning Authority: Patents And Source Evaluation In An Era Of Misinformation, Jess O'Toole

Journal of the Patent and Trademark Resource Center Association

In the world of academic research, patents are classified as primary literature, and are recognized as “a rich source of technical, legal and business information presented in a generally standardized format and often not reproduced anywhere else” (World Intellectual Property Organization, 2015, p.4). Because of their status, patents are often left out of conversations surrounding source credibility and evaluation. Recent news relating to the conspiracy theories surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and several patents, however, demonstrates the potential use of patents in spreading misinformation and disinformation. Through applying source evaluation techniques in keeping with the Association of College & Research Libraries’ …

Stalking The Wild X Patent, Barbara J. Hampton

Journal of the Patent and Trademark Resource Center Association

For most of the history of the patent office, recorded patents were used primarily to enforce the patent holder’s rights during the life of the patent and to evaluate prior art, in determining patentability. The limits of manual indexes and hand counts of entries made more sophisticated analyses impractical. Recently, a number of researchers have begun to apply scientometric methods to assess trends and causation in patterns of innovation in the United States by organizing data elements from patent documents. Although most patents are now searchable, fully digital records, the records of the earliest patents (1790–1836) were incinerated in a …