Intellectual Property

Knowledge is power and who had an idea first can be very important. Unfortunately, the protection of one's intellectual property can run counter to the free exchange of ideas that fuels scientific progress. Intellectual property is a very important topic for any researcher/inventor, and you should know as much as you can about the ethics of this topic as well as the legalities. I will try and collect some informative links here, but I would appreciate any suggestions you might have:

• Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) Main Website
• PTO Inventor Resources Website
• Do You Need to Patent It? An article in The Industrial Physicist