About Patent Laws

Inventing a better mousetrap can enrich you if you patent your technology.

Patent law protects original technological creations. As a patent owner, you can prevent anyone else from profiting from your invention or competing with you on the market for the duration of the patent. Patents endure for various periods, but never exceed 20 years. After your patent expires, anyone may use your technology without paying you royalties.

U.S. Constitution

Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate patents. As a consequence, patent law falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the U.S. federal government -- state governments cannot issue or regulate patents. The federal government also has the exclusive authority to enter into patent treaties with other nations.

U.S. Code

General patent standards are set by the patent statutes contained in Title 35 of the U.S. Code. The most distinctive feature of the U.S. patent system is its use of the "first to invent" standard rather than the "first to file" system used in most other nations. This means that you can invalidate another inventor's patent after it is granted if you can prove that you invented in first, even if you filed for patent protection later than the other inventor. The three basic standards for patentability are novelty, utility and non-obviousness. This means that the invention must never have been invented before, it must serve a practical function and it must have required an "inventive leap" of ingenuity to create it.

Code of Federal Regulations

Chapter 37, Part 1 of the Code of Federal Regulations deals with patents. Regulations are subordinate to statutes, but are generally more detailed. The CFR patent regulations set forth the process for applying for a patent, the content of a patent application, record-keeping requirements and the publication process. A large portion of the patents section of the CFR was enacted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Patent Cooperation Treaty

The Patent Cooperation Treaty is a treaty entered into by most of the world's nations that makes it easier for inventors to obtain worldwide patent protection. Although final patent decisions are made by the patent offices of individual nations, the PCT unifies and streamlines preliminary procedures. Inventors may make use of PCT services such as "prior art" searches -- an investigation of the originality of the technology for which patent protection is sought -- and evaluations of overall patentability.

References

• United States Patent and Trademark Office: General Information Concerning Patents; January 2005
• Cornell University Law School: Patent; August 2010
• World Intellectual Property Organization: Patent Cooperation Treaty; April 2002
• Code of Federal Regulations: Title 37, Part 1: Patent Regulations; November 2005