Patents are legal instruments intended to encourage innovation by providing a limited monopoly to the inventor (or their assignee) in return for the disclosure of the invention.[1][2] The underlying assumption is that innovation is encouraged because an inventor can secure exclusive rights and, therefore, a higher probability of financial rewards for their product in the marketplace or the opportunity to profit from licensing the rights to others. The publication of the invention is mandatory to get a patent. Keeping the same invention as a trade secret rather than disclosing it in a patent publication, for some inventions, could prove valuable well beyond the limited time of any patent term but at the risk of unpermitted disclosure or congenial invention by a third party.
^"Our Business: An Introduction to the USPTO". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on 30 December 2011.
^"Datasheet for the decision of 11 December 2018 (T 2707/16)" (PDF). Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office. reasons 18. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 January 2022. The basic idea and core purpose of the patent system is to stimulate technological innovation by offering the opportunity to obtain exclusionary rights limited in time in return for public disclosure of inventions.
and 28 Related for: Economics and patents information
The economics surrounding a single patent, or group of patents, revolves around the balance between the expense of maintaining the patent(s), and the...
patents, and utility models and Gebrauchsmuster are sometimes called petty patents or innovation patents. The additional qualification utility patent...
applicability of patents to substances and processes wholly or partially natural in origin is a subject of debate. Business method patent – includes patents on new...
essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. Determining which patents are essential to a particular standard can be complex. Patent ambush...
the patent holder. Patents are territorial, and infringement is only possible in a country where a patent is in force. For example, if a patent is granted...
programs and the Patent Cooperation Treaty Software patents under national laws: Software patents under United States patent law Software patents under United...
patent terms in the US were extended from 17 to 20 years in 1994. Pharmaceutical patents are typically more valuable than any other type of patents,...
Patents will only be granted for “any new and useful art, process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter”, and improvements thereon. Patents will...
of low-quality patents that should not have existed, particularly by "patent trolls"; and wasting money on patent litigation. Patents on pharmaceuticals...
A patent office is a governmental or intergovernmental organization which controls the issue of patents. In other words, "patent offices are government...
This is a list of legal terms relating to patentsandpatent law. A patent is not a right to practice or use the invention claimed therein, but a territorial...
of patentsandpatent law is generally considered to have started with the Venetian Statute of 1474. There is some evidence that some form of patent rights...
242 were patent examiners (almost all of whom were assigned to examine utility patents; only 99 were assigned to examine design patents) and 388 were...
patents are a class of patents which disclose and claim new methods of doing business. This includes new types of e-commerce, insurance, banking and tax...
patents". The Recorder. "When Patents Attack". NPR. 22 July 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2012. Galante, Suzanne (8 July 1997). "Trend Micro wages patent war"...
the infringement of patents. The rules and laws governing patent prosecution are often laid out in manuals released by the Patent Offices of various governments...
Trilateral Patent Offices, or simply the Trilateral Offices, are the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the United States Patent and...
defense of software patents or defense of the patentability of computer-implemented inventions. Through public disclosure, patents encourage the open sharing...
A patent thicket is "an overlapping set of patent rights" which requires innovators to reach licensing deals for multiple patents. This concept has negative...
that patents fail to provide incentives for innovations which are not commercially marketable. Stiglitz provides the idea of prizes instead of patents to...
nations to have patents declared invalid. United Kingdom patents can be reviewed by way of a non-binding opinion issued by the Patent Office, or by formal...
A patent portfolio is a collection of patents owned by a single entity, such as an individual or corporation. The patents may be related or unrelated...
The unitary patent may coexist with nationally enforceable patents ("classical" patents) in the non-participating states. The unitary patent's stated aims...
Innovation economics is new, and growing field of economic theory and applied/experimental economics that emphasizes innovation and entrepreneurship. It...
non-infringement. Alternatively, patent validity (or examiners' refusals to grant patents) can be challenged at Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). The US...
of applications, such as patents for inventions (also called "utility patents" in the U.S.), plant patents, and design patents, each of which can have...
official privilege over natural opportunities (e.g., patents). In the moral economy of neoclassical economics, economic rent includes income gained by labor...