This guide is designed to share information on patent protections, searching and related topics. This guide does not supply legal advice nor is it intended to replace the advice of legal counsel.
If you're in the sciences, you've probably heard the word patent many times before, but what exactly is it and why does it matter? In the United States, a patent is a type of intellectual property (IP) granted by the federal government to inventors, giving them exclusive rights to make, use, sell, or import their invention for a limited period of time—typically 20 years from the date of filing.
In the United States, there are three type of intellectual property designations creators can be protected by: patents, copyright, trademarks and trade secrets. People often confuse trademark law with copyright and copyright law with patent and although there is often overlap in how and what these designations protect, they are three distinct legal entities.
While copyright generally covers 'creative works' (i.e. movies, photographs, music, software code, etc.) and trademarks protect a word, phrase, design or a combination that specifically identifies a company or brand; patents protect technical inventions such as chemical compositions and mechanical processes that are new, unique and usable in some type of industry. Trade secrets protect confidential business information, such as formulas, manufacturing methods, or proprietary algorithms. Unlike patents, trade secrets rely on keeping the information secret.
Additionally, while creators protected by copyright can receive protections if they create the exact same work at the same time but can prove they had no knowledge of each other's work, that does not apply to patent protections. For something to qualify for patent protection, an invention must be:
Having a patent provides several important strategic, financial, and competitive benefits for inventors, companies, and research institutions. A patent gives the inventor the right to exclude others from:
However, receiving a patent does not give the inventor the automatic right to use the invention—it only gives them the power to stop others from using it without permission. Why not? Because the invention might involve or depend on another patented invention or violate other laws/regulations. For instance, if the new invention is an improvement on a device already created, the creator of the improvement will need to negotiate a licensing agreement with the original creator. In the case of drug manufacturing, the FDA will still need to approve the new substance before it can go to market.