What Is a Patent?
A patent for an invention is the grant of a
property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent
and Trademark Office. Generally, the term of a new patent is 20
years from the date on which the application for the patent was
filed in the United States or, in special cases, from the date an
earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of
maintenance fees. U.S. patent grants are effective only within the
United States, U.S. territories, and U.S. possessions. Under certain
circumstances, patent term extensions or adjustments may be
available.
The right conferred by the patent grant is,
in the language of the statute and of the grant itself, “the right
to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling”
the invention in the United States or “importing” the invention into
the United States. What is granted is not the right to make, use,
offer for sale, sell or import, but the right to exclude others from
making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the
invention. Once a patent is issued, the patentee must enforce the
patent without aid of the USPTO.
There are three types of patents:
1) Utility patents may be granted to
anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine,
article o manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and
useful improvement thereof;
2) Design patents may be
granted to anyone who invents a new, original, and ornamental design
for an article of manufacture; and
3) Plant patents may be granted to anyone
who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and
new variety of plant. |
