What is a Patent? How do you get one?

Question

1) What is a patent?
2) How do you get one?
3) What products are patentented?
4) Who isssues patetents?
5) What is the process?

Answer 1

Hi

1) This has been pretty well answered above, so I wont go into it - suffice it to say that it is a form of intellectual property right which protects inventions, and which gives the patent owner the exclusive right to work that invention in the country or countries which the patent covers.

2) You file a patent application at the patent office of each country where you desire protection. There is an international agreement in place which means that you can file first in one country, and then you have a period of 1 year to file in other countries. There are also a number of mechanisms for filing in multiple countries at the same time. Preferably (and I strongly advise this) you should employ the services of a patent attorney to write, file and prosecute your patent application for you, because it is a legal document, and if you write it yourself it may end up being of dubious legal and commercial value.

3) The main requirements are for the product to be novel (different to all known products), inventive (not merely a trivial modification of known products) and to meet various formal requirements. Certain types of invention cannot be patented in certain countries, but this varies from country to country.

4) Patent Offices issue patents - e.g. the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the US, the European Patent Office for Europe etc.

5) See my answer to (3). Then, once filed, the Patent Office will do a search for "prior art", and will examine it for novelty, inventive step and various other requirements. If it meets those requirements it will be granted.

Do not disclose your invention until you have filed a patent application for it, because to do so may prevent you getting a patent in some countries. The website "NOLO" referred to in another answer gives some very very bad advice (IMHO), for instance it infers that you can freely disclose your invention up to one year before filing a patent application. While this is true in the US, it may destroy your chances of getting a patent in other countries.

Good luck!

Answer 2

To protect an original invention OR a significant improvement to an existing product, a patent would be filed. Here's the USPTO's definition: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/index.html#patent

NOLO is a great, free informational site. Also, be sure to read what the USPTO (United States Patent & Trademark Office) has to say about patents.

Associations may be a good avenue to explore. These organizations will address many of the thoughts, questions and concerns you'll inevitably have as well as many you haven't anticipated yet. See the source box for some relevant links.

Research, research, research – this cannot be stressed enough. Read as much as you can. Here are some book titles that are relevant:

Getting a Patent:
* Patent It Yourself (11th Edition) by David Pressman
* Patents and How to Get One : A Practical Handbook by U.S. Department of Commerce
* How To Make Patent Drawings Yourself: A Patent It Yourself Companion by Jack Lo
* The Inventor's Notebook: A Patent It Yourself Companion by Fred E. Grissom

There are plenty of free informational resources out there. Check the source box for links to articles.

Hope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!

Answer 3

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a patentee (the inventor or assignee) for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive, and useful or industrially applicable.

The exclusive right granted to a patentee in most countries is the right to prevent or exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell or importing the claimed invention. The rights given to the patentee do not include the right to make, use, or sell the invention themselves. The patentee may have to comply with other laws and regulations to make use of the claimed invention. So, for example, a pharmaceutical company may obtain a patent on a new drug but will be unable to market the drug without regulatory approval, or an inventor may patent an improvement to a particular type of laser, but be unable to make or sell the new design without a license from the owner of an earlier broader patent covering lasers of that type.

The term "patent" originates from the Latin word patere which means "to lay open" (i.e. make available for public inspection) and the term letters patent, which originally denoted royal decrees granting exclusive rights to certain individuals or businesses.



A patent is obtained by filing a written application at the relevant patent office. That application will contain a specification detailing the invention and the protection claimed, together with forms relating to the procedural aspects of obtaining a patent. In most countries, including the United States, there is no requirement that the inventor actually build a prototype or otherwise reduce his or her invention to practice in order to obtain a patent.

Once a patent application has been filed, a patent office examines that application for compliance with the requirements of the relevant patent law. If the application does not comply with all of the requirements, the objections are communicated to the Applicant (or his representative), who can then respond to those objections to attempt to overcome them to obtain the grant of a patent.

Once granted the patent is subject in most countries to renewal fees, generally due each year [10], to keep the patent in force.


Within the context of a national or multilateral body of law, an invention is patentable if it meets the relevant legal conditions to be granted a patent. By extension, patentability also refers to the substantive conditions that must be met for a patent to be held valid.

Answer 4

in the US, you file a patent application with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Most of your questions are answered on their FAQs page, or in the website.

http://www.uspto.gov/main/faq/index.html

Answer 5

a patent protects your products
you usually have to register it with the division that deals with IP in your country
i believe you have to pay to get your patent