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You are here: Home / Lessons / Purpose of the patent system

Purpose of the patent system

April 11, 2018 by James Yang

Back to: Navigating the Patent System

The purpose of the patent system is to encourage innovation by granting inventors a patent for their inventions. A patent is a governmental grant to inventors of a right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling or importing to, the United States, their invention. The United States is willing to grant a patent to an inventor so that they can use the patent to protect their potential future revenue stream. Patents protect this revenue for a limited time.

In exchange, after the patent term expires, the invention is dedicated to the public. Inventors must teach (i.e., enable) the public how to make and use the invention so that after the limited time period (i.e., patent term) for which the patents are enforceable has expired, the public can then take advantage of the innovations taught by the inventor.

In this manner, the patent system is a contract with the government. The benefit of the patent system for the government and the public is that new inventions propel technological advances that the public can use after the expiration of the patent. The benefit to inventors is that they are granted an “exclusionary right” (not unlike a monopoly) over the patented invention for a limited time.1

The basis for the United States patent system is Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which grants Congress the power “to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”

Purpose of patent system & benefits of a patent

Footnote:

1  To be precise, this is not a monopolistic right because the inventor’s patent right is not a “positive right” to make, use, sell, offer for sale the patented invention in the United States or import the patented invention into the United States. Rather, the patent right is stated as a “negative right,” an exclusionary right that can be asserted against others to stop the enumerated activities listed above.

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Table of Contents

  • Introduction
    • Disclaimer
    • What you will find in this course
    • How to use this course
  • To Patent or Not To Patent (Section 1)
    • Purpose of the patent system
    • Benefits to the patent owner
    • Overview of the Seven Core Concepts
  • Getting Started: Seven Core Patent Concepts
    • Core Concept 1: Defining the Invention (Chapter 1)
    • Core Concept 2: Ownership–Resolving Ownership Issues (Chapter 2)
    • Core Concept 3: Conducting a Novelty Search (Chapter 3)
    • Core Concept 4: Different Ways to Protect an Idea (Chapter 4)
    • Core Concept 5: Three Bars to Patentability and the First-Inventor-to-File Regime (Chapter 5)
    • Core Concept 6: Preserving Foreign Patent Protection (Chapter 6)
    • Core Concept 7: The Overall Patent Process and Costs (Chapter 7)
  • Utility and Design Patent Applications (Section 2)
    • How to use this section on patent applications
    • Deciding what application to file: Design or utility?
    • Design Applications (Chapter 8)
    • Cost Considerations for Provisional and Nonprovisional Utility Patent Applications (Chapter 9)
    • Overarching Principles of a Utility Patent Application (Chapter 10)
    • Parts of a Utility Patent Application (Chapter 11)
    • Claims section
    • Writing Tip #1: How to write an application with the broadest possible protection (without breaking the bank) (Chapter 12)
    • Writing Tip #2: Be explicit. Don’t rely on inferences made in the patent application
    • Writing Tip #3: Using the word “may” versus “is”
    • Writing Tip #4: Preferred embodiments and using the word “substantial”
    • Writing Tip #5: Do not use the word, “invention” 
    • Writing Tip #6: Suboptimal embodiments
    • Writing Tip #7: Ranges
    • Writing Tip #8: Software Inventions
  • Patent Examination FAQs (Section 3)
    • FAQ #1: Patent Process Timing
    • FAQs #2-3: Patent Costs
    • FAQ #4: Duty to search v. Duty to disclose
    • FAQ #5: Review of Formalities
    • FAQs #6-7: Secrecy
    • FAQs #8-9: Nonpublication request and foreign patent protection
    • FAQs #10-16: Restriction Requirement
    • FAQs #17-21: Responding to Office Action rejections
    • FAQs #22-29: Broadening patent protection
  • Appendices
    • Appendix A: Trademark
    • Appendix B: Sample Utility Patent  
    • Appendix C: Sample Design Patent
    • Appendix D: Sample Trademark Registration
    • Appendix E: Entity Size 
    • Appendix F: Patent Laws

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