A thread in response to offboard questions

[quincy]

Very briefly and simply:

A patent is granted in the U.S. by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and provides the patent holder with the rights to use and develop the patent without interference from others for a limited amount of time.

The patent holder during this time can license his rights to others (through either an exclusive or nonexclusive license) or the patent holder can sell his patent to another. Unauthorized uses of the invention can result in a patent infringement suit.

Once a patent is granted, the information on the invention becomes publicly available. The information from the patent application is published in the Official Gazette. Once a patent is granted, no one is allowed to use the patent without permission from the patent holder. Public access to the patent information, in other words, does not mean that this information is "free" for anyone to use.

The patent holder can also be offered international protection for his patent, as well (see the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the Paris Convention).

Questions answered?

 

[tranquility]

In a continuing education class on IP taxation issues, the way it was described was that a patent does not give you a right to do something as much as the power to prevent another from doing it. You could get a patent describing your invention well and still not be able to produce it for any of a number of reasons.

 

[FlyingRon]

Conversely, you don't NEED a patent to use an invention (provided it wasn't already covered by patent). As stated all a patent does is give you exclusivity in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention. Alternatively, you can keep the nature of your invention a secret (which you can do forever rather than 20 years) and not be obliged to disclose it. Of course, other's are free to independently discover the same invention and compete against you.

 

[quincy]

The USPTO website is worth exploring (http://www.uspto.gov).

Two good places to start on the government site for general information on patents: http://www.uspto.gov/faq/patents.jsp and http://www.uspto.gov/patents/resources/general_info_concerning_patents.jsp.

And to the person who PMed me: If your brother has an invention he is working on and/or has completed, he will benefit eventually from sitting down with a patent attorney in his area. Because the laws on patents changed earlier this year, he will want to file a provisional or a regular patent application before disclosing any information about his invention publicly.