IP Resources: Patent

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or substance (known as an invention) which is new, inventive and useful.

Many companies begin manufacturing and selling their new product (a.k.a. their invention) to the marketplace before their patent is officially granted. They use the term “patent pending” to indicate that the product is proprietary and a patent is (just like the term states), pending.

The standard for what is patentable subject matter in the United States is "anything under the sun made by man" that is new (novel), useful, and non-obvious. Similar standards for patentability apply in Japan and the European Patent Office (EPO).

In law, a patent infringement occurs when the subject-matter claimed in a patent has been utilized by someone other than the rightholder, without the owner's approval or in disagreement with the terms of use given by the owner.

The first to invent policy is a controversial patent law doctrine only used in the United States to decide which inventor shall be awarded a patent in case two or more of them reached the same invention independently at about the same time.

The term of a patent is the maximum period during which it can be maintained into force. It is usually expressed in number of years either starting from the filing date of the patent application or from the date of grant of the patent. In most patent laws, renewal or maintenance fees have to be regularly paid in order to maintain the patent into force.