Patent Protection Process
CARR patent attorneys counsel clients about achieving suitable protection for their inventions, including assessing and determining whether a valuable invention should be protected as a trade secret rather than by a patent. It is important to remember that the information contained in the patent application will ultimately become publicly available if a patent issues and possibly earlier, if the application is published.
A patent grants certain exclusive "property rights" in an invention. In general, patentable inventions fall into a range generally spanning between the extremes of those that are pioneering in nature (e.g., light bulb, transistor, vascular stent) and those adding incremental improvement and value.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office grants three categories of patents:
- Utility patents are available for inventions that provide any new or useful process, machine, article or composition of matter. In appropriate circumstances, utility patents may also be used to protect computer software and business methods.
- Design patents issue for inventions that are ornamental designs forming part of a physical object.
- Plant patents are granted for an asexually reproduced, new and distinct variety of plant.
Each invention must meet the legal requirement of not being obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the field of the invention, in addition to being new or novel.
Contact a CARR patent lawyer today.
