The purpose of this exercise is for you to appreciate and recognize the intellectual property inherent in your work by (a) researching related patents, and (b) writing a CWRU patent disclosure for your senior project.
CWRU patent disclosure form (DOC, 48kB)
This form is also downloadable from the CWRU technology Transfer Office.
CWRU patent & licensing policy (PDF, 12kB)
This form is also downloadable from the CWRU technology Transfer Office.
This site contains a directory of all US patents and contains a search engine which will allow you to retrieve patents on a page-by-page basis. While it is useful and instructive to perform a patent search so that you can learn a lot about the field of the invention, it is also risky to rely on negative results of such a search. After all, if you are the inventor you really do not want to find out that someone else has already patented your latest idea. really does not want to find the invention. Patent searching can also be difficult due to quirks in the patent classification system or online databases.
This US Patent & Trademark Office gives a good overview of what can be patented. In general computer software is very difficult to patent and is instead copyrighted. See what the government says about software patents .
Download a copy of the evaluation form (PDF, 8kB) I will use to grade your patent disclosure.