Research Guides: Patent Searching for SEAS Students: Patent Basics

Patent Basics

Definition: A patent is a property right granted by the Government of the United States of America to an inventor “to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States” for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention.

The three types of patents as defined by the USPTO:

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

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

3) Plant patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant

Utility:
- This is the most common type of patent
- Most utility patents consist of 6 to 8 digits and are protected for 20 years [Note: patents prior to July 1836 start with an X]
- Example: Method of and Apparatus for Converting Heat into Work (542,846)
Design:
- A utility patent protects the functionality of an invention and a design patent protects the appearance
- A design patent number starts with a D and is protected for 14 years
- Example: Panda Bear inhaler (D538,423) (the panda bear appearance is protected, not the inhaler)
Plant:
- A plant patent starts with PP and is protected for 20 years
- Example: Blueberry Plant called 'Emerald" (PP12,165)

What is Patentable?

Utility patents are provided for a new, non-obvious and useful:

Process
Machine
Article of manufacture
Composition of matter
Improvement of any of the above

What cannot be patented:

Laws of nature
Physical phenomena
Abstract ideas
Literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works (these would fall under Copyright)
Inventions which are:
- Not useful
- Offensive to public morality

There are two types of utility patent applications, provisional and non-provisional.

A non-provisional application is the more common of the two.

One advantage of provisional applications is that they are less expensive. However, there are some important things to consider when filing a provisional application. Provisional applications are good only for 12 months. This means that you must file a corresponding non-provisional application during this time period to take full advantage of the extended 12 month time period or face the expiration of your provisional application.