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

A Powerful Patent Strategy Provisionally

A provisional application is part of a powerful patent strategy, but only if the provisional application is prepared properly. If it does not completely describe the invention, it will do more harm than good. "We have an invention but don't want to ...
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An Introduction to Patents

My name is Jim Jacobs and I will spend a few minutes talking about protecting intellectual property, particularly as it applies to the information technology and the communications industry. A few years ago the idea of protecting intellectual ...
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Antitrust Implications of Patent Settlements: Balancing Patent Policy, Antitrust Law, and the Practical Limits of Litigation

In a perfect world, all patents would be valid and none infringed. In a near-perfect world, a mechanism would exist to rapidly and efficiently determine whether a patent is valid and infringed. We live in neither world. Our method— litigation—is not ...
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Attorney Diligence in Patent Application Preparation Will Require Special Attention After January 1, 1996

But, proof of a prior actual date of invention frequently requires not only clear evidence of conception and of reduction to practice but also evidence of diligence. If a constructive reduction to practice is relied upon, diligence to the filing of ...
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Business Methods Patents and Electronic Commerce

At one time, patents could not easily be obtained for software-related inventions. Clever practitioners quickly learned to draft the claims so as not to claim protection for a computer program as such. After a few years of this game, and some ...
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Considerations for Patenting

Patents may be valuable assets of an organization, but there are numerous considerations that should be made prior to engaging in the patenting process. Prior to taking the first patenting step, every organization should first consider how the ...
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Cost-Effective Patenting

Ever hear your patent attorney talk about cost-effectiveness? Not likely. Cost effectiveness is great for the clients, but not so good for the bottom line of a law office. The stakes are enormous. You probably noticed that the cost of protecting ...
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Court Erred in Disregarding Patent Expert

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in BullsEye, a newsletter distributed by IMS Expert Services. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled June 18th that a federal court in a patent dispute was wrong to disregard expert testimony ...
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Defendant’s Experts Help Make Plaintiff’s Case

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in BullsEye, a newsletter distributed by IMS Expert Services. Expert witness opinion of patent infringement, offered by a patent owner during licensing negotiations, proved to be key evidence in ...
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Design Patents as Alternatives to Utility Patents

Design patents are rarely encountered in the chemical process industry and yet they constitute a significant portion of the patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The proportion is slowly increasing, with approximately one design ...
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