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Patent

A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, providing protection for a limited period, typically 20 years, and incentivizing innovation. Patent owners have the right to control the use of their inventions and must publicly disclose information about them, enriching technical knowledge. Patents are granted by national or regional patent offices and must meet specific criteria, including novelty and practical use.

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7 views

Patent

A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, providing protection for a limited period, typically 20 years, and incentivizing innovation. Patent owners have the right to control the use of their inventions and must publicly disclose information about them, enriching technical knowledge. Patents are granted by national or regional patent offices and must meet specific criteria, including novelty and practical use.

Uploaded by

mii chanr
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Patent

•A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention –


a product or process that provides a new way of doing
something, or that offers a new technical solution to a
problem. A patent provides patent owners with
protection for their inventions. Protection is granted for a
limited period, generally 20 years yet varies from states
to states.
•Why are patents necessary - Patents provide incentives
to individuals by recognizing their creativity and offering
the possibility of material reward for their marketable
inventions. These incentives encourage innovation, which
in turn enhances the quality of human life.
• What kind of protection do patents offer - Patent
protection means an invention cannot be commercially
made, used, distributed or sold without the patent owner’s
consent. Patent rights are usually enforced in courts that
hold the authority to stop patent infringement. Conversely,
a court can also declare a patent invalid upon a successful
challenge by a third party.
• What role do patents play in everyday life - Patented
inventions have pervaded every aspect of human life, from
electric lighting (patents held by Edison and Swan) and
sewing machines (patents held by Howe and Singer), to
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (patents held by
Damadian) and the iPhone (patents held by Apple).
• What rights do patent owners have - A patent owner
has the right to decide who may or may not use the
patented invention for the period during which it is
protected. Patent owners may give permission to, or
license, other parties to use their inventions on
mutually agreed terms. Owners may also sell their
invention rights to someone else, who then becomes
the new owner of the patent. Once a patent expires,
protection ends and the invention enters the public
domain. This is also known as becoming off patent,
meaning the owner no longer holds exclusive rights to
the invention, and it becomes available for commercial
exploitation by others.
• In return for patent protection, all patent owners are
obliged to publicly disclose information on their
inventions in order to enrich the total body of
technical knowledge in the world. This ever
increasing body of public knowledge promotes
further creativity and innovation. Patents therefore
provide not only protection for their owners but also
valuable information and inspiration for future
generations of researchers and inventors.
• How is a patent granted - The first step in securing a
patent is to file a patent application. The application
generally contains the title of the invention.
• It has an indication of its technical field. It must
include the background and a description of the
invention, in clear language and enough detail
that an individual with an average understanding
of the field could use or reproduce the invention.
Such descriptions are usually accompanied by
visual materials – drawings, plans or diagrams –
that describe the invention in greater detail. The
application also contains various “claims”, that is,
information to help determine the extent of
protection to be granted by the patent.
• What kinds of inventions can be protected - An invention must,
in general, fulfill the following conditions to be protected by a
patent. It must be of practical use; it must show an element of
“novelty”, meaning some new characteristic that is not part of
the body of existing knowledge in its particular technical field.
That body of existing knowledge is called “prior art”. The
invention must show an “inventive step” that could not be
deduced by a person with average knowledge of the technical
field. Its subject matter must be accepted as “patentable”
under law. In many countries, scientific theories, mathematical
methods, plant or animal varieties, discoveries of natural
substances, commercial methods or methods of medical
treatment (as opposed to medical products) are not generally
patentable.
• Who grants patents - Patents are granted by national patent
offices or by regional offices that carry out examination work
for a group of countries – for example, the European Patent
Office (EPO) and the African Intellectual Property
Organization (OAPI). Under such regional systems, an
applicant requests protection for an invention in one or more
countries, and each country decides whether to offer patent
protection within its borders. The WIPO-administered Patent
Cooperation Treaty (PCT) provides for the filing of a single
international patent application that has the same effect as
national applications filed in the designated countries. An
applicant seeking protection may file one application and
request protection in as many signatory states as needed.

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