Читать книгу Intellectual Property Law for Engineers, Scientists, and Entrepreneurs - Howard B. Rockman - Страница 57

A patent is far more than simply a legal document. It is a technical publication, a sales brochure, and a precise definition of the fence around the technology protected by the exclusive right encompassed by the patent grant. As a technical document, the patent contains a written description of the patented invention sufficient to permit anyone interested in the field of technology to which the patent relates to make and use the invention after expiration of the patent, by reading the information in the patent. It follows, therefore, that the USPTO provides a wealth of technical information available to the public that may be unavailable elsewhere. As a sales brochure, the patent describes the prior art that was known before the invention set forth in the patent, and then describes how the invention improves, advances, and provides advantages over the known state of the art. As a complete description of the invention, along with claims setting forth the metes and bounds of the inventor’s exclusive rights, the patent also acts as an advisory to those who would be infringers as to the limits of the inventor’s exclusive technological territory.

Original issued patents comprise a set of printed pages, and drawings where required, bound together with a red ribbon under a gold seal. Duplicate copies of each patent are available from the USPTO, or from the Internet at www.uspto.gov. In the USPTO, patents are arranged electronically by subject matter, in excruciating detail, by class and sub‐class for ease of searching, which will be discussed in Chapter 8.

As a bottom line, a patent is a grant by the government of intellectual property rights that permits the patent owner to stop others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention covered by the claims, and supported by the specification, of the patent. The components of a patent are the drawings, where required, the specification which describes and explains the patented invention, and the claims which define that which the patent right covers. These documents are called “patents” because the word means “open, exposed, or evident.” Letters patent have always been open to public inspection once granted, setting forth the knowledge contained in the grants. Under existing U.S. law, U.S. pending patent applications are published electronically 18 months after filing, unless the applicant states that he or she will not file corresponding patent applications in countries outside the United States and files a non‐publication request.

“Letters patent” and “patent” mean the same thing. The USPTO issues several types of patents, namely: utility patents, including article or apparatus patents; method or process patents; design patents; and plant patents. Upon expiration of a patent, it cannot be renewed, and its subject matter enters the public domain. If an improvement is made to an originally covered invention by either the original inventor, or someone totally different, an entirely new patent on that improvement can be obtained. However, it is important to remember that, once a patent reaches its expiration date, its contents fall into the public domain, and there is no renewal provision.