The general standard patent lasts for twenty years. Patents will only be valid in the jurisdiction of the authority that issues them. Therefore, a U. In order to receive foreign or international patent protection, the owner will also need to file a separate series of applications. The way patents are enforced are through court and legal action.
If the patent is infringed upon, the patent owner must use the court system to enforce their right. It is the responsibility of the patent owner to monitor the public arena for infringement. Here are some of the largest patent infringement public judgments from to Others can use the patent however if the owner decides to license the patent to them.
The patent owner will essentially exchange the right to use the patent, whether exclusively or non-exclusively, for payments. Patent licensing can be a way to still make economic use of a patent if the patent owner does not have the capabilities or interest in certain uses of the patent.
For example, if the patent owner is an individual or a small company, a corporation that has the scale to make great use of the patent may have a big interest in licensing with it. The deal making between patent owners and licensees is economically beneficial in that it allows the patent to still be used and give its benefits to the public market.
Patent protection applies in the country or region that issues the patent. In Canada, a patent lasts for 20 years from the date that you file it. Patents can have a great deal of value. You can sell them, license them or use them as assets to attract funding from investors.
Most experts agree that inventors should use the services of a registered patent agent to help with the complexities of patent law. Find a licensed patent agent. What is a patent in Canada? A patent is a legal document granted to you a document symbolizing a patent appears from the bottom A patent confirms your exclusive right to your invention for up to 20 years!
What is a patent? Apply for a patent What you can patent Patents apply to inventions. An invention is eligible for patent protection if it is: new—first in the world useful—functional and operative inventive—showing ingenuity and not obvious to someone of average skill who works in the field of your invention The invention must also be: a product example: a door lock a composition example: a chemical composition used in lubricants for door locks a machine example: a machine for making door locks a process example: a method for making door locks an improvement on any of these For details on what can be patented, see Chapter Statutory Subject-Matter in the Manual of Patent Office Practice MOPOP.
Computer code and computer-implemented inventions Computer code by itself is not something physical and therefore not patentable by law. What you can't patent Some things that can't be patented include: disembodied ideas, concepts or discoveries scientific principles and abstract theorems methods of medical treatment or surgery higher life forms forms of energy features of solely intellectual or aesthetic significance printed matter For details on what you can't patent, see Chapter Patents protect your intellectual property Protection against infringement Patent infringement happens if someone makes, uses or sells your patented invention without your permission in a country that has granted you a patent.
Protection before and after grant When you have a Canadian patent, you'll possibly be able to sue infringers for all damages that occurred after your patent was granted. Patent marking and "patent pending" The Patent Act does not require that articles be marked "patented"; however, in Canada, marking an article as patented when it is not is illegal. The relevant distinction between patentable and unpatentable subject matter is between products of nature, living or not, and human-made inventions.
The traditional rules that "printed matter" and "business methods" are unpatentable have recently been called into question. In , the Federal Circuit held that a system of conducting business can be patentable as a process even though it does not act on anything tangible. Signature Financial Group, F. The rule against patenting printed matter still retains its force, although printed matter may be patentable if its relationship with the physical invention is either new and useful, or new and non-obvious.
The second requirement for patentability is that the invention be useful. See 35 U. The PTO has developed guidelines for determining compliance with the utility requirement. The guidelines require that the utility asserted in the application be credible, specific, and substantial. These terms are defined in the Utility Guidelines Training Materials. Credible utility requires that logic and facts support the assertion of utility, or that a person of ordinary skill in the art would accept that the disclosed invention is currently capable of the claimed use.
The utility must be specific to the subject matter claimed; not a general utility that could apply to a broad class of inventions. Substantial utility requires that the invention have a defined real world use; a claimed utility that requires or constitutes carrying out further research to identify or confirm a use in the context of the real world is not sufficient.
The novelty requirement described under 35 U. Novelty requires that the invention was not known or used by others in this country, or patented or described in a printed publication in this or another country, prior to invention by the patent applicant. To meet the novelty requirement, the invention must be new. The statutory bar refers to the fact that the patented material must not have been in public use or on sale in this country, or patented or described in a printed publication in this or another country more than one year prior to the date of the application for a U.
In other words, the right to patent is lost if the inventor delays too long before seeking patent protection. An essential difference between the novelty requirement and statutory bars is that an inventor's own actions cannot destroy the novelty of his or her own invention, but can create a statutory bar to patentability.
Congress added the nonobviousness requirement to the test for patentability with the enactment of the Patent Act of The test for nonobviousness is whether the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made.
The Supreme Court first applied the nonobviousness requirement in Graham v. John Deere Co. The Court held that nonobviousness could be determined through basic factual inquiries into the scope and content of the prior art, the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue, and the level of skill possessed by a practitioner of the relevant art.
In , the Supreme Court again addressed the test for nonobviousness. Teleflex, Inc. Under the "teaching, suggestion, or motivation test" applied by the Federal Circuit, a patent claim was only deemed obvious if "some motivation or suggestion to combine the prior art teachings can be found in the prior art, the nature of the problem, or the knowledge of person having ordinary skill in the art. The enablement requirement is directly related to the specification, or disclosure, which must be included as part of every patent application.
At the end of the specification, the applicant lists "one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention. Enablement is understood as encompassing three distinct requirements: the enablement requirement, the written description requirement, and the best mode requirement. Every patent application must include a specification describing the workings of the invention, and one or more claims at the end of the specification stating the precise legal definition of the invention.
To satisfy the enablement requirement, the specification must describe the invention with sufficient particularity that a person having ordinary skill in the art would be able to make and use the claimed invention without "undue experimentation.
In In re Wands , the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals listed eight factors to be considered in determining whether a disclosure would require undue experimentation. See MPEP The written description requirement compares the description of the invention set out in the specification with the particular attributes of the invention identified for protection in the claims.
It is possible for a specification to meet the test for enablement, but fail the written description test. The basic standard for the written description test is that the applicant must show he or she was "in possession" of the invention as later claimed at the time the application was filed.
Any claim asserted by the inventor must be supported by the written description contained in the specification. The goal when drafting patent claims is to make them as broad as the PTO will allow. THe writing requirement imposes two important limitations: the applicant may not seek protection for a claim that is broader than the supporting specification; and, if the applicant intends to focus on a particular attribute of the invention in the claims, that attribute must be clearly indicated in the specification.
In addition to disclosing sufficient information to enable others to practice the claimed invention, the patent applicant is required to disclose the best mode of practicing the invention.
The best mode requirement is violated where the inventor fails to disclose a preferred embodiment, or fails to disclose a preference that materially affects making or using the invention. See Bayer AG v. Schein Pharmaceuticals, Inc. A violation of the best mode requirement involves two essential elements: first, it must be determined whether the inventor actually had a preferred mode of practicing the invention at the time the application was filed; if it is established that the inventor did contemplate a best mode for practicing the invention, the question becomes whether sufficient information was disclosed to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to practice the best mode of the invention.
There are 6 types of patents that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has created the utility patent and the design patent are the most common :. Prior to the Bayh-Dole Act passage in , if someone created an invention with the help of federal funding, then the patent for that invention would be assigned to the federal government. The Act allows for the patents of federally-funded inventions to be assigned to universities, small business, and non-profits, if the invention was created while the inventor was a member of that institution i.
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