Understanding and Learning Patent Law

Posted by Joseph Franks on January 31st, 2020

What Is a Patent?

A patent is the permitting of a property right by a sovereign authority to an inventor. This grant provides the inventor exclusive rights to the patented procedure, design or invention for a designated period in exchange for a comprehensive disclosure of the invention. They are a type of incorporeal right.

Government agencies normally handle and approve applications for patents. In the US, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which is part of the Department of Commerce, handles applications and grants approvals. For better, direct understand and help regarding your patent get the experience and skilled  California Patent Attorney.

There are three types of patents:

  • Utility patents cover anyone who invents a new and useful procedure, article of manufacture, machine or a composition of matter.
  • Design patents contain an original, new, and decorative design for a manufactured products.
  • Plant patents go to anyone who produces, discovers and invents an innovative kind of plant capable of reproduction.

Patents provide an incentive for businesses or individuals to continue developing innovative products or services without the fear of infringement. For instance, large pharmaceutical companies can spend billions of dollars on research and progress. Without patents, their drugs and medicines could be duplicated and sold by companies that didn't research or put in the needed capital for R&D.

In other words, patents protect the intellectual property of companies to help their success. However, patents also help as bragging rights for companies demonstrating their innovativeness.

Understanding Patents

Most of the patents are lawful for 20 years in the U.S. from the date the application was registered with the USPTO, although there are conditions whereby exceptions are made to extend a patent's term. U.S. patents are only valid and lawful in the United States and U.S. Territories.

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a patent can be allowed to any person who:

“Invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent, subject to the conditions and requirements of the law”.

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Joseph Franks

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Joseph Franks
Joined: September 16th, 2019
Articles Posted: 102

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