What is a Patent?

A patent endows an inventor with the right to prevent others from making, using, selling, or offering to sell the invention.  This endowment of rights, however, only lasts for a limited time.  In exchange for this liimited-time monopoly, the inventor must fully and completely disclose his or her invention, so that any person familiar with the art would be able to practice the invention.  In this way, the grant of a patent allows both the inventor individually and the public as a whole to benefit from the invention. The United States Constitution gives Congress the exclusive power to enact patent laws.  As such, patent law is almost exclusively federal law.  Patent applications are made to an agency of the federal government, namely the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO).  The United States PTO is one of the busiest agencies of the government;  it employs more than 7,500 people and grants thousands of patents every day.  However, the PTO has only one location, and no branch offices. In the 1970s, the United States PTO outgrew its offices  in Washington, DC and moved to a Northern VIrginia suburb of our Nation's Capital.  Perhaps the PTO will expand even further in the future by building branch offices in other parts of the country.

Types of Patents

There are three distinct types of United States Patents:      Utility      Design      Plant A utility patent gives the inventor a monopoly  in an invention that lasts twenty (20) years from the filing date of the utility patent application, or seventeen (17) years from the date of the patent grant, whichever is longer.  In order to obtain a utility patent , the applicant must convince the PTO that the invention is not only useful, but also novel and not a mere obvious variation of the current state-of-the-art. A design patent gives its owner a 14-year monopoly from the date the design patent is issued.   Instead of protecting a device, machine, process, or method like a utility patent does, a design patent endows its owner with the right to prevent others from using a particular ornamental design of an article of manufacture.  In short, a design patent protects the appearance of an article, not its functionality. A plant patent protects discovery or invention of a distinct and new variety of plant for twenty (20) years from the date of the patent application.  Similar to the utility patent, a new inventive plant must be distinct and non-obvious.  Additionally, the inventive plant must be asexally reproduced in order to qualify for patent protection.

How to Obtain a Patent

The typical steps taken to obtain a patent are as follows: 1. Initial disclosure 2. Patentability search 3. Preparation and filing of the patent application with the PTO 4. Prosecution of the application, including argument  in favor of patentability   and possible amendment of the application 5.  Patent issues 6.  Periodic maintenance fees

What is Infringement?

Infringement occurs when someone other than the patent owner makes, uses, sells or offers for sale the  invention, as recited in the claims of the patent.  It is important to note that an infringer need not purposely act in order to be held liable.  Indeed, one may be held liable as an infringer, even if  completely unaware that his or her product or method infringes the rights of an enforceable patent.   The law, however, provides enhanced civil penalties against those who wilfully or  knowingly infringe patent rights. Even though the law provides criminal penalties for patent infringement,  criminal prosecutions for patent infringement are extremely rare.  As such, the overwhelming majority of actions seeking to enforce patent rights are civil lawsuits brought by  patent owners.