|
Patents for Inventors
A patent is a property right granted by the Government of the United States of
America to an inventor to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale,
or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention
into the United States for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of
the invention when the patent is granted. A patent may be applied for only in
the name(s) of the actual inventor(s).
There are some rules governing the issue of patents. Patent is provided for
a new, non- obvious and useful process, machine, article of manufacture,
composition of matter and/or improvement of any of the above. In addition to
utility patents, encompassing one of the categories above, patent protection
is available for ornamental design of an article of manufacture or asexually
reproduced plant varieties by design and plant patents.
Similarly there are issues that cannot be patented; they include laws of
nature, physical phenomena, abstract ideas, literary, dramatic, musical, and
artistic works (these can be Copyright protected). Inventions that is not useful
(such as perpetual motion machines) or offensive to public morality.
Invention must also be novel, non-obvious, adequately described or enabled and
claimed by the inventor in clear and definite terms. Search of all previous
public disclosures including, but not limited to previously patented inventions
in the U.S. should be conducted to determine if your invention has been publicly
disclosed and thus is not patent able.
|
