If you search for the term "camcorder" in the U. Patent Office's database, you will find more than a thousand separate patents. A modern camcorder is a combination of hundreds of patented inventions. Adaptations of earlier inventions can be patented as long as they are nonobvious , meaning that a person of standard skill in the area of study wouldn't automatically come up with the same idea upon examining the existing invention.
For example, you can't patent the concept of making a toaster that can handle more pieces of bread at once, because that is only taking an existing invention and making it bigger. For an invention to be patented, it must be innovative to the point that it wouldn't be obvious to others.
Another condition for patenting something is that the invention is " useful. You couldn't patent a random configuration of gears , for example, if it didn't do anything in particular. You also wouldn't be able to patent a time machine if you couldn't construct a working model. Unproven ideas generally fall into the realm of science fiction, and so are protected only by copyright law. All a patent really does is give the patent-holder the right to stop others from producing, selling or using his or her invention.
For the life of the patent 20 years in the United States , patent-holders can profit from their inventions by going into business for themselves or licensing the use of their invention to other companies.
It is up to the patent-holder to actually enforce the patent; the government does not go after patent or copyright infringers. To enlist the government's help in stopping infringement, the patent-holder must take any infringers to court. Some inventors, such as the late Jerome Lemelson, have spent a significant part of their careers battling infringers.
Many large companies have been accused of appropriating inventors' ideas without compensating them for their work. Though Lemelson had patented crucial components in some of the most momentous technology of the 20th century, he spent much of his life struggling to get by.
His critics charged that most of his ideas were based on projects companies were already pursuing. Eventually, Lemelson won out, amassing a substantial fortune late in life. He and his wife Dorothy used much of this money to assist other struggling inventors.
In , they established the Lemelson Foundation, a philanthropic organization dedicated to promoting and rewarding American inventors. While patent law does protect most forms of invention, it does not apply to all great ideas. In the next section, we'll see what sort of things can be patented and which cannot. In patent law, the term "invention" is defined loosely so that it can encompass a wide variety of objects. Obviously, if patents have to apply to things that don't exist yet, then the legal language must be fairly vague.
In addition to standard technological machines and machine advancements, you can also patent certain computer programs, industrial processes and unique designs such as tire or shoe-tread patterns. While none of the elements in these creations are new, the inventor may have combined them in a unique and innovative way. In the language of patent law, this constitutes an invention. Some sorts of ideas are considered outside the realm of patents.
No matter how innovative and beneficial they may be, certain notions are automatically public property the minute they are uncovered. The most prevalent examples of this are discoveries in the natural world.
Scientists cannot patent laws of the universe, even though defining those laws may revolutionize a particular industry or change how we live. Einstein's Law of Relativity, for example, revolutionized the world of physics and will be forever linked with the man who devised it, but it has never been owned by anybody. This principle existed long before humans did, so, logically, it cannot be any person's intellectual property.
Scientists cannot patent a newly discovered plant or animal, either, though they may be able to patent a new plant or animal that was produced through genetic engineering. This is similar to the patenting of processes and computer programs: A genetic engineer didn't create any of the parts, but the combination of these parts may be novel and nonobvious, and therefore patentable.
In addition to giving proper credit to individual inventors, patents help out humanity in general. In the next section, we'll see why patents are so important to a society. With 1, patents to his name, Thomas Edison remains the most prolific inventor in U.
He received his first patent, for an electrical voting machine, at the age of In , he set up an invention lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey, and set a schedule of one small invention every 10 days and one major invention every six months. Among many other inventions, Edison is the father of the light bulb, the phonograph and motion pictures with sound. Jerome Lemelson held patents, and played a major part in the development of camcorders , CD players , word-processing programs, Walkmans, fax machines and automated industrial machines, among many other devices.
Edwin Land held patents in his life, and is best known for his instant-photography techniques, which are used in Polaroid cameras. So far, we've seen that patents grant inventors ownership of their original ideas, giving them temporary control over who can use those ideas. This system shows up in some form or another in most all developed nations, because it is so important to a country's development. Patents affect society in a number of a ways, but at their core, they serve a very basic function: They help encourage the advancement of science and technology.
Patents motivate individual inventors, but they also motivate large companies. They are particularly important to chemical, computer-technology and pharmaceutical firms. In these markets, your success might be wholly dependent on having exclusive rights to innovative products. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance.
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Key Takeaways A patent is the granting of a property right by a sovereign authority to an inventor. A patent provides the inventor exclusive rights to the patented process, design, or invention for a certain period in exchange for a complete disclosure of the invention. In June of , the U. Patent and Trademark Office issued its 10 millionth patent. Utility and plant patents are granted for 20 years, whereas design patents are granted for either 14 or 15 years, depending on when filed. Article Sources.
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What is granted is not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention. For a patent to be effective in the United States, you need to apply for the patent within one year of the first commercial use of the product. But it is recommended that you apply for the patent before the product is placed on the market.
The authority of a patent is limited to the country in which you have applied for that patent. You need to apply for a patent in each country where you intend to market your product. In most countries, application for the patent must be made prior to placing the product on the market.
Most U. Patents cannot be renewed. Design patents offer protection for 14 years. If you want to obtain a patent , then your invention must meet three requirements: novelty, inventiveness and industrial applicability. Novelty: This means that your invention was not disclosed anywhere in the world before the patent application was filed. Not even by you. The novelty requirement is generally not a major barrier and not all aspects of the invention must be new. A combination of familiar things or a smart choice could already bring novelty to your invention.
If you have thought carefully about your invention, there is often already a new aspect to point out. Inventiveness: This means that your idea must not appear obvious. The question whether an invention is inventive is often judged on the basis of whether the invention improves on what is already known, for example, because it solves a problem for which the solution was not obvious to the average craftsman. Suppose in a fictive world, chairs have always been made with exactly four legs and never less.
But they have a problem because they wobble. You suddenly realize that you can solve the wobbling issue, not by adding an additional stabilization element, but by actually removing one of the legs.
In this fictive world this could potentially be a patentable invention. Industrial applicability: This means that the invention must be made or applied for industrial or commercial purposes. This is generally a low barrier and almost all technical inventions that are commercially applicable meet this requirement.
Patentprocedures lijken vaak ingewikkeld en kostbaar. De route met de drie fasen die hieronder wordt geschetst spreekt velen aan, omdat we daarmee de kosten uitstellen en opties openhouden. Het is de meest gangbare weg naar octrooibescherming. Phase 1 — Premier depot The first step is the priority application, also called premier depot or first filing. In this phase, your patent attorney advises you about the application strategy, based on your objectives.
He or she will then draw up the priority application based on your wishes. This is an important moment because it is decisive for your patent rights. The date on which the application is filed is called the priority date for the patent, which is valid for a maximum of 20 years. Anything published after this priority date will not affect the validity of your patent. You will receive a novelty report after about eight months.
With your patent attorney, you discuss the following steps to strengthen your patent application. The text of the priority application can be changed, but no additional content can be added. Phase 2 — International phase In any following application you can add substantive content, that must be filed no later than 12 months after the priority date.
You can add a new implementation, example, or even a new idea to this. A separate, and therefore later, priority date applies to these additions. Unlike the name suggests, an international application does not result in an international patent, but it does provide the possibility to eventually establish patent rights in almost all countries in the world.
It is also a way in which to buy more time and delay costs because you do not have to immediately decide which countries you want the patent in. The application and novelty report are published after 18 months. Our patent attorney will advise you when making this choice. Do you want a patent in several European countries? Then a European patent application could be a good choice.
The European Patent Office will examine the novelty, inventive step, and industrial applicability of your invention. In this phase, your patent attorney often consults with this organization in order to guide your application through the process as smoothly as possible.
A European patent is issued after two years on average. That is followed by validation in the countries themselves, after which you pay an annual maintenance fee per country. A patent attorney will develop the application strategy for this based on your objectives and draft and file the patent application. The final amount depends on your objectives and the complexity of your invention.
If so, then generally you file an application for a European patent and the granted patent is subsequently validated per country.
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