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Patents
What is a patent?
When to obtain a patent
Ownership and sale of
patent rights
Patent protection
in foreign countries
Types of patents
Patent Pending
What constitutes patent infringement?
Remedies for patent infringement
Patent
Law
What is a patent?
A United States patent is a grant of a property right by the U.S.
Government to the inventor to "exclude others from making,
using, or selling the invention." Patents are granted for a
term of 20 years from filing (14 years from issuance for design
patents). After expiration of the term, the property right becomes
public domain.
When
to obtain a patent
A valid patent may not be obtained if the invention was in public
use or on sale in the U.S. for more than one year prior to the filing
of your patent application. Your own use and sale of the invention
more than one year before your application is filed will bar your
right to a patent just as effectively as if this use and sale had
been done by someone else.
Ownership
and sale of patent rights
The inventor may sell all of his interest in the patent application
or patent to anyone by a properly worded assignment. The application
must be filed in the Patent and Trademark Office as the invention
of the true inventor, and not as the invention of the person who
has purchased the invention from the inventor.
Patent
protection in foreign countries
A United States patent protects your invention only in this country.
Normally, a license must be obtained from the Commissioner of Patents
and Trademarks before you can file for a patent in another country,
unless the filing in another country occurs more than six months
after the filing in this country, in which case, no license is necessary.
Types of patents
The
patent law provides for the granting of patents in three major categories:
1. Utility patents
Are granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful
process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, or any new
and useful improvement thereof. "Process" means new industrial
or technical processes. "Manufacture" refers to articles
which are made. "Composition of matter" relates to chemical
compositions and may include mixtures of ingredients, as well as
new chemical compounds.
2.
Design patents
Are granted to any person who has invented a new, original and ornamental
design for an article of manufacture. The appearance of the article
is protected.
3.
Plant patents
Are granted to any person who has invented or discovered a new unobvious
plant.
Patent
Pending
The terms "patent pending" and "patent applied for"
are used by a manufacturer or seller of an article to inform the
public that an application for patent on that article is on file.
The law imposes a fine on those who use these terms falsely.
What
constitutes patent infringement?
If a patent is valid and you have not misused it or engaged in inequitable
or unlawful conduct with respect to it, the patent protects against
the unauthorized manufacture, use or sale in the U.S. of all devices
or processes embodying the invention or of components intended for
assembly abroad into such devices, whether they were copied from
authorized devices or resulted from an independent act of invention.
It also protects against the importation, use of sale in the U.S.
of a product made from a patented product without authorization,
although there are numerous limitations to protect innocent infringers.
Patent owners have been cautious in starting infringement proceedings
because they generally are expensive and usually result in an attack
against their patent's validity. But tribunals have been enforcing
patent rights more frequently in recent years.
Remedies
for patent infringement
There are no criminal penalties for patent infringement, but the
following civil remedies are available under the federal law: (a)an
injunction against future infringement; and (b)compensatory damages,
in no event less than a reasonable royalty, which may be trebled
(and additionally for infringing a design patent, the infringer's
profits, but not less than $250.00). However, you can recover damages
only if either the infringer was notified of the infringement and
continued to infringe, or the patented article bore a patent notice.
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