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

GATT, WIPO Herald Changes to U.S. Patent Law

Despite its withdrawal from the World Intellectual Property Organization (W1PO) patent harmonization talks, the United States is about to overhaul its patent laws. Pending legislation to implement the signed General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ...
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General Information About 35 U.S.C. 161: Plant Patents

Fees A plant patent is granted by the Government to an inventor (or the inventor's hiers or assigns) who has invented or discovered and asexually reproduced a distinct and new variety of plant, other than a tuber propagated plant or a plant ...
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Global Patent Considerations for the 21st Century

There was a time when all U.S. business competitors and markets were domestic, and we only needed to protect our technology in this country. With the U.S. ratification of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the emergence of China and ...
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Grace Periods and the European and International Patent Law: Analysis of Key Legal and Socio-Economic Aspects by Joseph Straus

This monograph, published as volume 20 in the Max Plank Institute's series entitled International Review of Industrial Property and Copyright Law (also known as "IIC"), is one of the studies commissioned by the European Patent Organization pursuant ...
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Guide to Current Patent Reform Legislation

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in BullsEye, a newsletter distributed by IMS Expert Services. Legislation that would dramatically overhaul U.S. patent law appears to be on a fast track in Congress, with Senators Patrick Leahy ...
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High-Tech M&A: The Preparation Stage

So you want to buy a high-tech company. You are not alone. Not a day goes by without the announcement of another blockbuster M&A deal in the technology sector. With exuberant valuations provided by stock markets for high-tech stocks, these private ...
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Holmes v. Vornado: A Restatement of the “Arising Under” Jurisdiction of Federal Courts

On June 3, 2002, the Supreme Court issued one of its most important decisions in decades construing the "arising under" jurisdiction of United States District Courts. In Holmes Group, Inc. v. Vornado Air Circulation Systems, Inc.,2 seven Justices ...
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HP’s Patent Armada is Lost at Sea

In earlier issues, we have written about the torpedoing of Seiko-Epson's submarine patents and the sinking of Canon's flagship patent. Now there is another nautical metaphor about patents for aftermarket inkjet cartridge competitors -- an armada of ...
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Ignore U.S. Research Record Keeping Principles at the Peril of Your U.S. Patent Portfolio

After January 1, 1996, the non-U.S. WTO applicant for U.S. patent protection will have the advantage of being able to prove an actual date of invention by evidence of work done outside of the United States. This new provision in U.S. patent law ...
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Inequitable Conduct Not Found in Patent Application

In this patent infringement case, the court had found Plaintiff's patent to be unenforceable on an earlier motion for summary judgment, based on commercial sales more than one year prior to the filing of the patent application. Defendants then moved ...
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