Patents are the most important form of publication for industrial research. Patents vs. other forms of intellectual property Patents cover tangible inventions. Trademarks and Service Marks cover the recognizable symbols of a company, organization or product. The invention must be useful. Patents are a government monopoly, so an inventor must apply in each country where such a monopoly is desired.
Different countries have different rules on patentability and time of disclosure.
Chemical Patents and Markush Structures Chemical patents often have claims made for a whole family of compounds. These are called Markush claims, after the first inventor to successfully claim a generic structure. Fairly good detail on chemical information in patents. Special patent databases cover patents in other ways. Fulltext of patents is available free online for the last ten years.