Patent Basics
What Is a Patent? (from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office)
A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Generally, the term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, in special cases, from the date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees. U.S. patent grants are effective only within the United States, U.S. territories, and U.S. possessions. Under certain circumstances, patent term extensions or adjustments may be available.
The right conferred by the patent grant is, in the language of the statute and of the grant itself, “the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” the invention in the United States or “importing” the invention into the United States. What is granted is not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention. Once a patent is issued, the patentee must enforce the patent without aid of the USPTO.
There are three types of patents:
Utility patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or compositions of matters, or any new useful improvement thereof;
Design patents may be granted to anyone who invents a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture;
and Plant patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plants.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office also offers an excellent summary of basic patent information entitled General Information Concerning Patents. It contains basic and useful information about the patent office as well as essential definitions and explanations of patent concepts.