Intellectual Property Four types of intellectual property are patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. There are three types of patents: utility patents, design patents, and plant patents. A utility patent is issued for an invention of a new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture (e.g., a hammer), composition of matter (e.g., a chemical formula), or any new and useful improvement thereof. A design patent is issued for an invention of an ornamental design for an article of manufacture (e.g., the ornamental design of a Coca-Cola® bottle). A plant patent is issued for the invention of certain plants. An inventor of a novel product or process can file a utility patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. If the inventor obtains a patent, she has the right to exclude others from making, using, offering to sell, selling, or importing the invention during the term of the patent. For utility patents , the patent term begins when a patent is issued and lasts until a date 20 years from the date that the inventor filed the patent application. In order to obtain a utility patent, the inventor’s patent application must satisfy several eligibility requirements. These requirements are too many and complex to discuss fully in this brief discussion. In a nutshell, however, to be entitled to a patent, an inventor must meet the requirements of novelty, statutory bars, and nonobviousness. For novelty, the invention must be new. To avoid the statutory bars, the inventor must file a U.S. patent application no later than a year after she (or anyone else) publishes, publicly uses, sells, or offers for sale the invention. Courts generally construe the threshold for publication or public use liberally. For nonobviousness, the inventor must demonstrate that the invention would not have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, in light of everything published or in public use on the date of invention. Initially, just as soon as the invention is conceived, the inventor should begin by contemporaneously recording their invention in an inventor’s notebook. Preferably, it should have a stiff cover with numbered pages that are permanently bounded. The notebook should have lines at the bottom of each page for signatures (and dates) for the inventor and witnesses. A patent attorney should be engaged in order to protect your rights. The patent attorney can assist you in preparing and filing the patent application, as well as licensing your invention to third parties who may be interested in developing and marketing your invention. |