LibGuides: Design: Standards & intellectual property

What are standards?

Standards are documents that establish a common specification, so products and processes can work safely, reliably and consistently.

British Standards Online

British standards online is our main source for standards. It has complete online copies of all current British Standard Institute (BSI) standards available as PDFs, as well as some draft and withdrawn standards.

British Standards Online This link opens in a new window
From 19th December 2020, British Standards Online will require you to install a plug-in to read it standards. We will provide further details as we learn more.
PDF copies of virtually all current standards produced by the British Standards Institution with technical specifications covering products, processes and practices for all areas of engineering, industry, food and work, as well as standardised glossaries of terms..
British standards are only applicable in the UK: however, some British standards have been adopted from standards produced by international bodies, such as ISO or CEN. Such standards will be indicated in their standard number - in the case of the previous example, BS ISO and BS EN respectively - and will be applicable outside the UK in the countries which belong to those bodies. Please note that the database can be searched either by standard number or by keyword, but not both: so if your search fails the first time, make sure that the right box is ticked under the search box.

Other sources for standards

IHS Standards This link opens in a new window
The IHS Standards Store provides an index to many of the world's technical, industry, government and military standards. Including standards from the British Standards Institution (BSI), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), ASTM International, IEE, IEEE, etc..
Search by standard number or find standards on a subject by searching for keywords which appear in the title of the standard. Please note that this resource is a useful search tool only and that the full text of the standards is not available from this source. To obtain the full text of British Standards, please use British Standards Online. To find out how to obtain other standards, please contact the learning centre.

Intellectual property

Intellectual property protects ideas, trademarks and designs from being stolen or imitated.

Intellectual Property Office
Trademarks and designs registered with the UK government, including some information on UK patents.

Intellectual Property Office. (2016, Jun 7). Protect your designs (subtitled). [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPMQOC3rYR0

US Patent and Trademark Office
Intellectual property and trademarks registered with the United States government.
IP: YouTube channel
Intellectual Property Office official YouTube video channel

Help with Copyright

CopyrightUser.org
CopyrightUser.org is an online resource aimed at making UK copyright law accessible to creators, media professionals, entrepreneurs, students, and members of the public. The resources here are meant for everyone who uses copyright: musicians, filmmakers, performers, writers, visual artists and interactive developers, among others.