In the United States, only the United States Patent & Trademark Office. In other nations, the appropriate national counterpart of the USPTO.
The federal government grants patents. In the US, patents are handled by the Patent and Trademark Office, which is part of the Department of Commerce.
In US patent practice, the terms you're using, "full patent" and "mechanical patent," don't have any meaning. The United States Patent and Trademark Office grants three types of non-provisional patents: design patents, plant patents, and utility patents. They protect different things; one doesn't "override" the other.
Researchers typically get paid through a combination of sources such as grants, funding from institutions or organizations, royalties from patents or publications, and sometimes through consulting or speaking fees.
99,220, including utility patents, plant patents, design patents, and reissues.
The USPTO granted a total of 247,727 patents from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2011, including Reissue Patents, Plant Patents, Design Patents, and Utility Patents.
The US Patent Office issued 99,200 total patents from 1 January 1990 to 31 December 1990, including 9 reissue patents, 6 plant patents, 194 design patents, and 98,991 utility patents.
Charles Kettering had 104 patents.
43 patents
The website Free Patents Online provides descriptions of patents, with downloadable PDFs of their schematics. Alternatively, the website Patents provides text descriptions but no images.
As of 2010, General Electric (GE) has 1,222 patents. Aside from this, they have filed 37, 268 patents in the US.
1093 patents for inventions
Spyderco has 54 patents and 36 trademarks.