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What are Patents?
Home » Entrepreneurship » Patents and Copyrights » What are Patents?Patents are a form of intellectual property protection, similar to trademarks and copyrights. Patents protect inventions as well as improvements to existing inventions, according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (www.uspto.gov). The USPTO Web site offers in-depth explanations of patents, trademarks, and copyrights, but we’ll include a brief overview here. For more detailed information, you’ll want to check out the government Web site.
A patent is used to keep other people from making, using, or selling your invention in the United States. There are different kinds of patents: a utility or plant patent and a design patent. A utility or plant patent is granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, a machine, article of manufacture, compositions of matter, or any new and useful information to that end. A design patent is for anyone who invents a new, original, and ornamental design for an item to be made.
There are restrictions on how long a patent is good. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a utility or plant patent is subject to either a 17-year term from the time it is granted, or a 20-year term from the earliest effective U.S. filing date, whichever is longer. A design patent is good for 14 years from the patent grant. Patent protection starts only when the actual grant of a patent is made. That’s why companies very often use the words “patent pending” to let the public know that an application has been filed, even though the protection hasn’t kicked in yet.
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