I remember hearing in one of the link building webinars that if you hold a patent then you could get a link from that somehow.

[larahill]

Any examples or suggestions as to how this is done?

[makeshiftyy]

One of the SEOmoz webinars?

I haven't heard about this, but I'd imagine it would involve finding relevant authorities and databases that hold some interest in the patent and getting them to reference your site directly in association with it.