Patent
A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Generally, the term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, in special cases, from the date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees. This is FindLaw’s collection of Patent articles, part of the Intellectual Property section of the Corporate Counsel Center. Law articles in this archive are predominantly written by lawyers for a professional audience seeking business solutions to legal issues. Start your free research with FindLaw.
Intellectual Property
Patent Articles
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What Can Be Patented
(Excerpted from the United States Patent and Trademark Office's General Information Concerning Patents) The patent law specifies the general field of subject matter that can be patented and the conditions under which a patent may be obtained. In the ...
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What is Intellectual Property?: Patents
Intellectual Property is the group of legal rights in things that people create or invent. Intellectual property rights include patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret rights. In Europe and some other countries, "moral rights", which are ...
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When “Exclusive” is not “Exclusive” and “Compulsory” not “Compulsory:” eBay v. MercExchange and Paice v. Toyota
The source of American patent law, Article I, section 8, of the U.S. Constitution, empowers Congress to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective ...
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Will Willful Infringement Now Wilt Away?
The "willful" infringement of a patent enables the plaintiff to collect treble damages, as well as attorneys' fees. On September 13, 2004, in Knorr-Bremse Systems Fuer Nutzfahrzeuge GmbH v. Dana Corp., the Federal Circuit overturned 18 years of ...
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Within Hearing
The determination of whether a patent claim has been infringed requires a two-step analysis. First, the court must interpret the asserted claims as a matter of law to determine their scope and meaning. Second, the trier of fact must judge whether ...
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