Patent

General Patent Information

Patent Laws

The Constitution of the United States gives Congress the power to enact laws relating to patents, in Article 1, section 8, which reads “Congress shall have 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.” Under this power Congress has from time to time enacted various laws relating to patents.

Types of Patents

There are three types of patents:

Utility Patents

Utility patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or any new and useful improvement thereof;

Design Patents

Design patents may be granted to anyone who invents a new, nonobvious, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture.

Plant
Patents

may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant, including cultivated sports, mutants, hybrids, and newly found seedlings, other than a tuber-propagated plant or a plant found in an uncultivated state.

Who may apply for a patent?

Only the inventor may apply for a patent. If two or more persons make an invention jointly, they apply for a patent as joint inventors.

Patent Applications

Provisional

Since June 8, 1995, the USPTO has offered inventors the option of filing a provisional application for patent which was designed to provide a lower cost first patent filing in the United States. Claims and oath or declaration are NOT required for a provisional application. Provisional application provides the means to establish an early effective filing date in a patent application and permits the term “Patent Pending” to be used.

Non-Provisional

A non-provisional application for a patent is made to the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office and includes:

A written document which comprises a specification (description and claims), and an oath or declaration;
A drawing in those cases in which a drawing is necessary; and
Filing, search, and examination fees. All application papers must be in the English language or a translation into the English language will be required.