What is Patent ?

A patent is a Government-granted exclusive right, or a set of specified rights, to an inventor, or a person who claims to be the true and first inventor (or the discoverer of a new process) to make, use or sell an invention, usually for a specified term. It may be granted for such novelties, (criteria for which are defined in law), as

a) A process or method that is new, useful and not obvious.
b) A new use of a known process, machine, or composition of matter or material, including asexually
produced plants and genetically engineered organisms.
c) Any new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture.

By such a grant of temporary monopoly to the originator, patent law aims at stimulating inventive activity and rapid realization or exploitation of new inventions for public benefit. As such, a patent falls in the same category of intellectual property issues like copyright and trademarks.

The patent is a personal property: so it can be sold, assigned or transferred as deemed by the owner. As such there can be disputes, in which case the authority or jurisdiction concerned has to mediate and investigate infringement if any and grant penalties to the violator / damages to the rightful owner.

What rights does a patent owner have?

A patent owner has the right to decide who may -or may not - use the patented invention for the period in which the invention is protected. The patent owner may give permission to, or license, other parties to use the invention on mutually agreed terms. The owner may also sell the right to the invention to someone else, who will then become the new owner of the patent. Once a patent expires, the protection ends, and an invention enters the public domain, that is, the owner no longer holds exclusive rights to the invention, which becomes available to commercial exploitation by others.

Why are patents necessary?

Patents provide incentives to individuals by offering them recognition for their creativity and material reward for their marketable inventions. These incentives encourage innovation, which assures that the quality of human life is continuously enhanced.

Next I will write about Types of Patents