The established methods for crediting intellectual property rights originating from an invention grant proper acknowledgment to the inventor and facilitate retrieval of the documented specifications. These methods vary slightly depending on the governing citation style. As an example, a citation in APA style might appear as: Smith, J. (2023). Improved Widget Assembly (U.S. Patent No. 12,345,678). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Accurate attribution ensures proper recognition of inventorship and facilitates subsequent research by allowing readers to easily locate and examine the original source. This referencing practice reinforces the integrity of scholarly and technical communication. Historically, the practice of formally acknowledging these documents gained prevalence with the increasing importance of patent protection in the 20th century.