Standards, patents & trademarks

Standards are documents which stipulate levels of performance and quality of goods and services, and conditions and procedures for operations in industry, science and commerce. 

• Primer on Engineering Standards (ebook)
• Learn How to Find Standards

The Standards Collection is mostly on print, with some available online via library databases. 

How to find standards on the library website

Search in the Sofia Discovery tool for the title of the standard or try a search for the issuing body as author (example: Canadian Standards Association - you can search either by the acronym or the full name). The library location for these is designated as "STANDARD". 

Access and location

Standards may be consulted during all the hours that the library is open for study. Standards are physically located on LB-2 in the Webster Library. On the shelves, they are arranged in alphabetical order by the names of the standard-issuing bodies. Exceptionally, standards issued by the Quebec Government are housed in the Government Publications area, also on LB-2. 

Online [Concordia users only]

• ASCE Standards
• ASHRAE Handbooks (some older versions are available) 
• ASM Handbooks 
• IEEE Standards via IEEE Xplore
• SAE Mobilus (current aerospace standards only) 
• SAE Handbook: contains "J" standards published up to 2009 from the Society of Automotive Engineers. Available at the workstation W-305-004 (this workstation is bookable).

Print 

A list of frequently-used titles:

• Annual book of ASTM standards
• ASHRAE handbook. Refrigeration
• ASHRAE handbook. Fundamentals
• ASHRAE handbook. Heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning applications
• ASHRAE handbook. Heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems and equipment
• Canadian Electrical Code 2018
• Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code 2021
• Environmental management - life cycle assessment - principles and framework (ISO 14040:2006)
• Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Requirements and guidelines (ISO 14044:2006)
• Manual of Concrete Practice (ACI: American Concrete Institute)
• National building code of Canada 2020
  • Free electronic version
• Quebec construction code. Chapter 1, Building, and National building code of Canada 2015 (amended)
  • Free electronic version

Most standards are not available for free, but some organizations do provide complimentary access, such as: 

• ASHRAE Standards and Guidelines  
  Some titles are available for read-only
• IBR Standards by ANSI 
  Standards incorporated by reference in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations are available for read-only
• National Fire Protection Association 
  Some titles are available for read-only, but account creation is required
• National Research Council Publications Archive 
  Major national model codes are available for free:
  • National Building Code of Canada
  • National Fire Code of Canada
  • Quebec Construction Code 
• Zero Carbon Building Standard

Canada

• SCC : Standards Council of Canada
• CSA : Canadian Standards Association
• CGSB : Canadian General Standards Board 
• Directory of Accredited Standards Development Organizations

United States

• ACI: American Concrete Institute
• ANSI : American National Standards Institute
• ASCE: American Society of Civil Engineers 
• ASHRAE : American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers
  • Some ASHRAE standards and guidelines are available for free as read-only versions
• ASM: American Society for Metals 
• ASME : American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• ASTM : American Society for Testing and Materials
• IEEE : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• SAE : Society of Automotive Engineers
• U.S. Department of Defense Military Standards

International & National

• ISO : International Standards Organization
• IEC / CEI : International Electrotechnical Commission
  • Some ISO/IEC standards are available for free
• ITU : International Telecommunication Union
• ETSI : European Telecommunications Standards Institute
• CEN : European Committee for Standardization
• CENELEC : European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization

General

• ANSI: American National Standards Institute
• ASTM: American Society for Testing and Materials
• CGSB: Canadian General Standards Board
• CSA: Canadian Standards Association
• SCC: Standards Council of Canada
• U.S. Department of Defense Military Standards

Automotive

• SAE: Society of Automotive Engineers

Building / Construction / Civil

• ACI: American Concrete Institute
• ASCE: American Society of Civil Engineers 
• ASHRAE: American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers
  • Some ASHRAE standards and guidelines are available for free as read-only versions
• National Fire Protection Association
  • Some codes and standards are available for free
• National Research Council of Canada
  • National Model Codes (e.g. Building Code) are available for free on the NRC Publications Archive
• Zero Carbon Building Standard may be downloaded from the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) web site at no cost.
  

Electrical / Electronics

• ETSI: European Telecommunications Standards Institute
• IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• IEC/CEI: International Electrotechnical Commission
  • Some ISO/IEC standards are available for free
• ITU: International Telecommunication Union

Mechanical / Manufacturing / Automation

• ASM: American Society for Metals
• ASME: American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• ISO: International Standards Organization
• Freely available ISO/IEC Standards

Others

• Links to other U.S. standards developers - ANSI list
• Links to other Canadian national standardization organizations - SCC list

Canada

• Canadian Patent Database (Canadian Intellectual Property Office/CIPO) 
  This database provides access to over 75 years of patent descriptions and images. You can search, retrieve and study more than 1,300,000 patent documents.
• Canadian Trademarks Database (Canadian Intellectual Property Office/CIPO) 
  CIPO is offering access to a test version of the database, enabling you to look up all pending and registered trade-marks in Canada. Trade-mark information found in the database can include designs, wares and services covered by the registration, owner's name and more.
• Further information regarding patents, trademarks, copyright and industrial designs can be found at the CIPO website.

Concordia researchers who are interested in developing and protecting their intellectual property should contact the Office of Research at the University.

United States

• United States Patent and Trademark Office 
  Search a database that covers U.S. patents. The full-text of patents from 1976 onwards is available. For older patents (1790-1975), the scanned image is available.   
• Patents - Searching and Downloading (Duke University Library) 
• Information and links to a number of databases covering patents in the United States.

World

• EspaceNet 
  Patent searching of patent documents from 1836 to today. Covers United Kingdom, other European countries, European (EP) patents, World International Property Organization (WIPO), worldwide patents and Japanese patents. Bibliographic details are provided and where available the abstract, full text and images of a document.
• Google Patent Search 
  Google Patent Search facilitates keyword and advanced searching of well over 87 million patent publications from 17 patent offices around the world. The documents are translated and many link to relevant technical papers, books, prior art, PDFs, images, citations, and related patents.
• Patent Lens 
  Search the full-text of worldwide patent documents. Results may be annotated and may include various integrations with scholarly, technical, regulatory, or business data and literature. Service includes documents from the European Patent Office (grants and bibliographic data), USPTO (grants, applications, and assignments), WIPO applications, and the Australian Patent office.