Patent Law

The law governing patents and the rights bestowed by it

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Effects

To clarify the term of the patent a patent provides the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention rather than being a right to practice or use the invention, which is usually 20 years from the filing date subject to the payment of maintenance fees. A patent is, in effect, a constrained property right that the government offers to inventors in trade for their agreement to share the details of their inventions with the public. Like any other property right, it may be sold, licensed, mortgaged, assigned or transferred, given away, or simply abandoned.

The rights expressed by a patent vary country-by-country. For example, in the United States, a patent covers research, except "purely philosophical" inquiry. A U.S. patent is breached by any "making" of the invention, even a making that goes toward development of a new invention — which may itself become issue of a patent.

A patent being an exclusive right does not, however, necessarily give the owner of the patent the right to exploit the patent. For example, many inventions are developments of prior inventions which may still be covered by someone else's patent. If an inventor takes an existing, patented mouse trap design, adds a new feature to make an developed mouse trap, and obtains a patent on the development, he or she can only legally build his or her improved mouse trap with permission from the patent owner of the original mouse trap, assuming the original patent is still in force. On the other hand, the owner of the improved mouse trap can exclude the original patent owner from using the development.

Ownership

In most countries, both natural individuals and corporate entities may apply for a patent. In the United States, however, only the inventor(s) may apply for a patent however it may be assigned to a corporate entity subsequently and inventors may be required to assign inventions to their employers under a contract of employment. In most European countries, ownership of an invention may be overtaken from the inventor to their employer by rule of law if the invention was made in the course of the inventor's normal or specifically assigned employment duties, where an invention might rationally be expected to result from carrying out those duties, or if the inventor had a special obligation to further the interests of the employer's company.

The inventors, their successors or their assignees become the owners of the patent when and if it is granted. If a patent is issued to more than one proprietor, the laws of the country in question and any agreement between the proprietors may affect the extent to which each proprietor can exploit the patent. For example, in some countries, each owner may freely license or assign their rights in the patent to another person while the law in other countries prohibits such actions without the consent of the other proprietor(s).

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