An Overview of the Basics of Patent Law?

Answer 1

Patents are considered a form of property in ideas. Furthermore, patents fall under the category of Intellectual Property. There are three main areas which work to protect ideas by granting property rights. These areas of law are patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Congress has enacted statutes within these areas of law which grant property rights to protect ideas.

Patents are granted by the Patent and Trademark Office. The Patent and Trademark Office receives its authority from Title 35 of the U.S. Code. Patents work to protect inventions and processes. It is essential for a patent lawyer to have science, engineering, or other technical expertise. In fact, a lawyer must have an undergraduate degree in the sciences to become a patent lawyer or even take the patent bar exam.

It is important to think about patents as the granting of a bundle of property rights to a person, in order to protect that person's invention or process. The statute governing patents further explains the property rights granted to such a person. The granting of a patent gives a person the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling that person's creation throughout the United States. Furthermore, the statute gives a person the right to keep others from using, offering for sale or selling in the United States, or bringing into the United States, products made by a certain process protected by a patent. These statutes are found under 35 U.S.C.A.C2A7 154(a)(1)(2002).

Patents have time limits. A patent lasts for only 20 years, after the patent has been approved by the Patent and Trademark Office. A patent term may be extended beyond 20 years for other reasons under 35 U.S.C.A.C2A7 155-6.

To receive a patent, a patentee must prove various elements of an invention or process. First, a patentee must prove that an invention or process has social utility. Second, a patentee must prove that an invention or process has novelty. Third, a patentee must prove that an invention or process has subject matter which is non-obvious.C2A7 101 further defines the social utility requirement as new and useful. The novel requirement means that an invention or process must not have been previously described, used, invented, or patented by another person in the U.S. or abroad. The non-obvious requirement means that the subject matter as a whole must not have been wholly obvious at the time the creation was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the subject matter pertains.