Analysis of the Conversion of U.S. Engineering Doctoral Dissertations into U.S. Patent Applications

Doctoral dissertations approved in 2009 by U.S. graduate programs in aerospace, biomedical, chemical, civil, computer, electrical, environmental, industrial, and mechanical engineering were examined to identify U.S. patent applications based on inventions described in those dissertations. Slightly over 8 percent of the studied dissertations yielded at least one patent application, although the percentage varied greatly among disciplines. This is important to librarians because they play key roles in the dissertation process from cataloging to educating graduate students and faculty about dissertations, patents, and the patenting process.