What exactly is a patent?

A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention. In other words, a patent is an exclusive right to a product or a process that generally provides a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem.

There are three types of patents - Utility, Design, and Plant. 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.

The five major patentability requirements are (1) subject matter, (2) utility, (3) novelty, (4) non-obviousness, and (5) the writing requirements.

Inventions can be electrical, mechanical, or chemical in nature. Examples of inventions protected by utility patents are a microwave oven, genetically engineered bacteria for cleaning up oil spills, a computerized method of running cash management accounts, and a method for curing rubber.

1. The Lightbulb. The electric lightbulb is perhaps one of the most famous patented inventions known to humankind. It was awarded to Thomas Alva Edison in the year 1878. However, an English inventor called Joseph Swan had received a patent for a similar product in England at the same time.

inventor

Right to patent. - The right to the patent belongs to the true and actual inventor, his heirs, legal representatives or assigns. If two or more persons have an invention jointly, the right to the patent belongs to them jointly.

(Image: USPTO) Apple patents a whole lot of ideas it has, just to be safe, and some of them even come to market, eventually.

A secrecy order bars the award of a patent, orders that the invention be kept secret, restricts the filing of foreign patents, and specifies procedures to prevent disclosure of ideas contained in the application. The only way an inventor can avoid the risk of such imposed secrecy is to forgo patent protection.

20 years

A U.S. utility patent, explained above, is generally granted for 20 years from the date the patent application is filed; however, periodic fees are required to maintain the enforceability of the patent.

The estate is the legal person or entity that contains all the contractual and property rights and responsibilities that were controlled by the natural person before their death. There are exceptions, but when the owner of a patent dies, the patent usually becomes the property of the estate.

A patent can cost from $900 for a do-it-yourself application to between $5,000 and $10,000+ with the help of patent lawyers. A patent protects an invention and the cost of the process to get the patent will depend on the type of patent (provisional, non-provisional, or utility) and the complexity of the invention.

A poor man's patent is essentially writing out a description of your invention and then mailing that written description to yourself. This postmarked envelope supposedly acts to create the date of your invention as the date this written description was postmarked.

When a patentee dies, his interest in the patent passes to his legal representative; in case of dissolution or winding up of a company or bankruptcy transmission of patent by operation of law occurs.

Your intellectual property will form part of your estate when you die. This means several things: It will be passed according to your Will if you specifically made provision for who should receive it.

When an inventor dies after filing an application and executing the oath or declaration required by pre-AIA 37 CFR 1.63, the executor or administrator should intervene, but the allowance of the application will not be withheld nor the application withdrawn from issue if the executor or administrator does not intervene.

The Patent Pro Bono Program attempts to match inventors with registered patent agents or patent attorneys. These practitioners volunteer their time without charging the inventor. However, the inventor still must pay all fees that are required by the USPTO; these cannot be paid by the practitioner.

You can file a patent application on behalf of yourself or your co-inventors. Alternatively, you can hire a registered patent agent or attorney to file your application for you. Patent applications require both legal and technical expertise and even small mistakes can dramatically compromise the value of the patent.