Patents and Market Research: Librarians Partnering to Assist Bioengineering Senior Design Teams

Clemson’s business and engineering librarians have partnered to create a two-step, efficient process to assist Bioengineering Senior Design students in understanding patents and patent searching and market research. Clemson University’s required two-semester Bioengineering Senior Design program matches teams of students with regional clinicians to develop biomedical devices that they research, design, prototype, and test. In the first semester of the program, in which the business and engineering librarians are involved, students take BioE4010-Bioengineering Design Theory. BioE4010 is offered in both the Fall and Spring semesters, but enrollment is significantly higher in the fall. For example, in the Fall of 2021 the business and engineering librarians assisted a record 21 design teams of 4-5 students each, but there were only five design teams in the Spring of 2021. In BioE4010, teams must conduct a market analysis and identify competitors for their planned devices. They then search for existing related patents and published patent applications and reflect on how prior art could impact the patentability of their devices. The business librarian provides instruction in market research and the engineering librarian focuses on patents