United States Law Governing Filing Patents

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Here’s everything you need to know about the law governing filing patents.

Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 (1789) of the United States Constitution states, “The Congress shall have the power to promote. The power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing limited Times to Authors and Inventors of the art, the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries”.

The Constitution of the U.S. created the United States Patent system in 1789. The patent system intended to spur innovation by providing limited exclusivity rights to the inventors over their work.
Patents definition

A patent is typically a grant of property rights by a sovereign authority to an inventor. Inventors are provided with exclusive rights by this grant to the patented process, design, or innovation for a designated period.

The inventor gets the right in exchange for a comprehensive disclosure of the invention. Patents are a form of incorporeal right as per the law governing filing patents.

Applications and approvals of patents are handled generally by government agencies. The United ...
... States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the law governing filing patents in the U.S. The USPTO is part of the Department of Commerce and handles the applications and grant approvals of the patent.

Understanding patents

The question often asked when talking about patents is – “How long do patents last?” Most patents in the United States are valid for 20 years from the date the application got filed with the USPTO. However, there are circumstances where exceptions are made to extend the term of a patent.

It is important to note that a patent done in the territory of the United States is only valid in the country and U.S. Territories. It is essential to gain knowledge of the intellectual property rights of other nations to apply for protection with the governing authorities when seeking protection for a patent outside the United States.

As per the United States Patent and Trademark Office, a patent can be granted to any person who:

“Invents or discovers any new and useful process, the machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent, subject to the conditions and the requirements of the law.”

Click here to know more about patents, their nature, and the law governing filing patents on getlegal.com.

Law governing filing patents

The patent law encompasses the branch of law that governs patents. Congress enacted the patent laws and the law governing filing patents in the United States under its constitutional grant of authority to protect the discoveries of inventors.

Granted by the USPTO, a patent gives an exclusive property right to its inventor for the benefits of an invention or improvement, if any, for a specific period (20 years in most cases). The invention by its nature must be patentable; a skilled person in the relevant field of the patent must be able to make and use the patented invention; the idea must be novel and should not get iterated, and it should be useful.
Patent law specialists can search for patents to determine if the proposed invention is unique or iterated. If the invention appears unique, the inventor can apply, including detailed drawings and specifications as per law governing filing patents.

Who can submit a patent application?

As per law governing filing patents, an attorney registered to practice law before the USPTO or the inventor can prepare and submit a patent application as per law governing filing patents.

Once USPTO approves the patent application, a legal document will get issued to the inventor (patentee). The document incorporates a detailed description of the invention and its use, giving the investor the right to exclude other people from making, using, or selling the patented invention.
The role of patent laws

The patent law system gets intended to spur innovation by providing the owners of patents with limited exclusivity rights over their inventions. A patent system gets established in all industrialized nations across the globe.

Businesses and individuals would be less likely to undertake research and development without a patent system as their research and invention resulting from it would get unprotected against competitors seeking to copy their successful ideas and products.
Types of patents

Three types of patents are available in the United States. The three types are:

Design patents
Utility patents
Plant patents

Each type of patent has its specifications and duration. Let’s look at each one of them in detail as per the time of its formation.

Design patents

The patents issued for new, original, and ornamental designs for manufactured products are design patents. This type of patent protects the design or look of something. The patent requires the invention to which the design belongs and should be original and valuable.

As per law governing filing patents, design patents have 15 years of an application filed after May 13, 2015. The applications filed before May 12, 2015, last for 14 years from the filing date. A surcharge applied to utility patent applications filed after December 12, 1980, is called maintenance fees. No maintenance fee gets charged for design patents.

Utility patents

Patents for invention or utility patent issues legal protection to the inventor inventing a new and a useful process, the machine, an article of manufacture, etc. Utility patents are the most common type of patents done in the United States. More than 90% of the patents issued by the government of the U.S. belong to this category.
The duration of a utility patent is 20 years from the date of filing of the application as long the patentee pays maintenance fees.

Plant patents

A person who produces, discovers, and, invents a new kind of plant capable of reproduction is eligible to file for a plant patent. Plant patents get granted for 20 years from the filing date—no maintenance fee gets charged on plant patents.

As per the recent patent laws, the term of a new patent has changed over time. The new term is currently 20 years from the earliest claimed filing date. However, all three types of the patent are charged with a maintenance fee to keep them active.

The patented invention enters the public domain once the patent term has ended and no extension has been filed and approved.

A patent infringement happens when an individual or a company manufactures a product with an existing patent. If something happens, the patent owner can file a lawsuit against the infringer with substantial damages guaranteed. Click here to learn more about types of patents on getlegal.com.

The patent provides incentives to individuals and companies:

Patents are the tools that provide an incentive to individuals and companies to continue developing innovative products or services without the fear of innovation getting stolen.

For example, pharmaceutical companies can freely spend billions of dollars on research and development without fear of infringement. Without patents in place, the chances of their drugs and medicines getting duplicated are high and can be sold by the companies that did not spend billions of dollars on research to get the drug.

In simpler words, patents protect the intellectual property of companies to help their profitability. On the other hand, patents also serve as bragging rights for some companies demonstrating their innovativeness.

How to apply for a patent As Per Law Governing Filing Patents

The first job to apply for a patent is to research the Patent and Trademark office’s database to see if someone else or institution has claimed a patent for a similar invention; if not, the applicant can make a formal application as per law governing filing patents.

The invention to be patented must be different from or an improvement upon a previous design considered for patenting. Applicants must take care of and maintain accurate records of the design process and the steps to create the invention. Enforcing the patent is up to the person or entity applying for the patent.

The applicant submits specific documents and pays associated fees to apply for a patent in the United States. The written documentation should include drawings, descriptions, and claims of the item to be patented.

A declaration or a formal oath confirming the authenticity of the invention must be signed and submitted by the person applying for a patent. The application is reviewed after fee payment and either approved or denied.
Recent statistics of patents

More than 500,000 patent applications get received by USPTO per year, with just 300,000 of them being granted. USPTO has more than 12,000 employees, whereby approximately 70% of them are patent examiners, and the remaining employees work for legal and technical areas.

Examples of patents

The personal computer patent filed in 1980 was one of the most notable patents in the past 45 years. Steve Jobs and three other employees of Apple In applied for the patent.

In 1904, King C. Gillette patented the razor (later dubbed as safety razor). The patent of Garrett Morgan was accepted for the traffic lights in 1923. Philo Taylor Farnsworth received the patent for the television in 1930 for the “first television system.”

Farnsworth created the first electric television image at age 20 and invented an early model of the electronic microscope.

Patents vs. trademarks vs. copyrights
Patents

The legal right issued to inventors to protect their invention for a certain period, usually 20 years, is called patents. Patents exclude others from reproducing, using, or profiting from the work patented, without the expressed permission of the patent owner.

The granting authority grants patents in exchange for permission to publish details about the invention. The details of the invention, such as how it is made the use of the invention, are published. Read more about patents and the law governing filing patents; visit getlegal.com.
Trademarks

Legal protection on words, phrases, designs that get identified as a specific product or service is trademark protection. The intellectual property that contributes to the image and reputation of the work to which it originally belongs and the entity to which it belongs are trademarks.

A trademark can be incredibly valuable to the company beyond symbolism. Trademarks prompt companies to include them in their valuation.

A trademark has no definite expiry period as it is protected forever, as long as it is in use and the holder can defend it. The golden arch of McDonald’s, the swoosh of Nike, and the apple of Apple company are some of the most famous trademarks examples.
Copyrights

The legal right of the owner of intellectual property is called copyright. In simpler words, copyright is the right to copy the work of someone else, which means that the original creators of the work or products, along with anyone with the right given by the original creator, are the only ones with the right to reproduce the original work.

Copyrights law gives the exclusive right to the creator of original material to further use and duplicate that material for a said period. At this point, the copyrighted material becomes the public domain that anyone can use without any permission.

General remarks about patents

Numerous misconceptions are held about patents. Here are some clarifications to them.

A patent registered as per law governing filing patents is not a prerequisite to manufacturing or using a new invention. There are many products sold in the market that are not patented.

A patentable invention can be a combination of existing components or elements. In reality, most inventions made by humans are a collection of known components capable of operating individually in a well-known manner. However, the combination of elements may produce new and perhaps unexpected attributes.

An invention does not need to be perfect before filing the patent as per law governing filing patents. In reality, an actual building of the invention is not required to complete the invention and qualify for a patent. Full and clear disclosure of the invention while filing a patent application as per law governing filing patents get deemed a satisfactory substitute for an actual reduction to practice.

The public often assumes at large and inventors that all patents carry a worth of extraordinary sums of money. It is valid up to some extent, as many of them are extremely valuable. However, most of them do not reach commercial reality.

To conclude –

The legal right granted to the inventors for their innovation is called patents. The United States Patent and Trademark Office is the government division that issues patents and other intellectual property rights to the citizens of the United States. The right of patents gives exclusive rights to its owner to use, replicate, or sell the patented invention without the interference of a third entity who wishes to do the same.

Patents are granted for a limited time which is 20 years mostly. Patents issued as per law governing filing patents in the United States only offer protection within the country. The applicant must apply with the governing authority of the nation where he/she wishes to expand the safety of the innovation.
https://www.getlegal.com/legal-info-center/intellectual-property-law/patents/