US Patents

A patent is a government grant of property rights in an invention. In the United States, patents are issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), an agency of the Department of Commerce. A patent grants the patent owner the exclusive right to stop others from making, using and selling his or her invention and also to prevent others from making, using and selling the invention for 20 years after the patent application is filed at the USPTO. Like any other property, patent rights may be sold or transferred to others, or a patent owner may license his invention to others, collecting royalties from the licensees in exchange for the use of the patent rights provided in the licensing agreement.

There are presently three types of United States patents: design patents, utility patents and plant patents. Design patents cover the appearance or shape of a useful item and are used to protect ornamental features. The life of a design patent is 14 years from the date of issue.

Utility patents are what most inventors think of when they use or hear the word "patent". A utility patent offers legal protection on machines, articles of manufacture, compositions of matter or processes, including business processes. Once issued, the life of a utility patent is 20 years from the date of filing of the patent application (usually about 17 years from the time the patent issues).

Plant patents are granted on newly invented or discovered plants, which can be asexually reproduced. Like utility patents, plant patents have a term, which is 20 years from the date of filing of the application. A utility patent is often sought for plants of all types.

A patent application is filed with several necessary parts, including background and summary sections, a disclosure of the invention, an abstract (which is printed on the face of the patent), drawings and a set of claims, which are the legal heart of the application. The background and summary sections give a description of the invention in plain English and show how the invention is distinguished over prior art patents and publications. The disclosure is a detailed description of your invention. Taken in combination with the patent drawings, the disclosure is detailed enough that one having ordinary skill in your particular field could make your invention based on what is stated in the patent.

The abstract is just a brief description of your patent which is printed on the face of the patent. The abstract is used, primarily, to make patent searching easier. The claims section is where your patent attorney will spend his real time and effort. The claims describe in technical and legal terminology exactly what you "claim" as your invention. The claims define exactly what your patent covers and are carefully written to give you the broadest possible legal protection.

In addition to the types of patents listed above, a provisional patent application is a relatively new type of application in the United States. It is an informal application which is not examined like a regular application; i.e., a Patent Examiner will not perform a search on your invention to try to find similar patent art. A provisional patent application includes a "fully enabling disclosure" (which means that someone skilled in your particular field would be able to make the invention based on your description), but it does not need to contain any "claims" (these are the legal heart of a patent and determine your exact legal coverage).

Filing a provisional application gives you 12 months to further develop your invention, to investigate issues such as marketability and to work on the "business" of your invention (such as licensing and manufacturing). At the end of that 12 month period, a full patent application is then filed, which will receive the filing date of the provisional application. Why do you want an earlier filing date? Not only will this aid you in preventing others from obtaining a patent on the same invention at a later time, but if you ever need to sue someone for patent infringement, you can receive damages (i.e., money as a remedy) back to the earlier date.

Rosenberg, Morgan (2009) "US Patents"

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