Patents

U.S. Patents

     A U.S. Patent provides its Owner with a "monopoly" that grants the Owner the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale or importing the technology for a fixed period of time within the United States.  There are three types of enforceable patent in the United States:  utility, design and plant.  Additionally, under U.S. Patent Law, one may file a provisional patent application in order to secure an earlier effective filing date with a lower cost.  In order to secure protection for the technology disclosed in a provisional patent application, an applicant has 12-months to file a regular U.S. Patent application. 

     Once a regular patent application is filed, the patent application is examined by a U.S. Patent Examiner.  The Examiner reviews the application to ensure that technical requirements have been met and conducts a prior art search to determine whether the technology is useful, novel and non-obvious.  The Examiner will provide correspondence (referred to as Office Actions) to the Applicant and the Applicant will have an opportunity to respond to the Examiner.  If the Examiner allows the application, a patent will issue and the owner of the patent is responsible for paying periodic maintenance fees to keep the patent enforceable.

     For more information relating to U.S. patent law, please go to www.uspto.gov

Foreign patent

     Many countries across the globe have patent systems that provide various forms of protection for one's ideas and discoveries.  When determining whether a foreign application should be filed, there are many factors to be taken into consideration that cannot be sufficiently covered here.  However, most countries allows you to file a foreign application based on the filing date of a U.S. patent application within one-year of filing the earliest U.S. patent application.  Additionally, the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is an international system that provides an international filing date to an application and provides an international search report and additional time for filing an application directly in a country of interest. 

     For more information relating to International patent application, please go to www.wipo.int

Disclaimer:

     The information provided by this website is for general information purposes only and does not, in any way, constitutes legal advice.  If you are interested in obtaining legal advice or establishing an attorney-client relationship, please contact our office.