Business Owner's Manual

Patents

A patent for an invention is the grant, issued by the Patent and Trademark Office, of a property right to the inventor. And any person who "invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof" can obtain a patent, which must satisfy the following three criteria:

1. novelty (new, not previously patented or described elsewhere)

2. unobvious (to a person with ordinary skills in the area of technology related to the invention)

3. usefulness (has a useful purpose and operates to perform the intended purpose)

This is what cannot be patented:

• Works of authorship (copyrights)
• Tradenames, logos and methods of doing business
• Laws of nature
• Inventions that will not work

Types of Patents

There are essentially three types of patents:

• Utility (functional or structural novelty) — could be a machine or process that usually is subdivided into chemical, mechanical, or electrical categories
• Design (ornamental design) — covers the appearance of an item
• Plant (variety of plant) — includes the invention, discovery, and asexual reproduction (i.e. reproduced by means other than seeds) of any distinct and new variety of plant.

Duration of Patents

The granting of a patent entitles the inventor to exclusive rights, that is the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing the invention.

The duration of these rights is:

20 years from date of application for utility and plant patents

14 years from date of issue for design patents.

Searching to determine that an invention is "new" is usually based on a classification and subclassification system and can be done through CASSIS (a database available at USPTO Libraries and at the Science, Industry, and Business Library) or through the United States Patent and Trademark Office (for patents issued since January 1, 1976). Forms, application fees, and a list of attorneys and agents registered to practice before the Patent and Trademark Office can also be found at the United States Patent and Trademark Office Web site.