Types of Patents

Types of Patents :


Below is discussion of the three different types of patents that are awarded by the United States Patent & Trademark Office.



Utility Patents

A utility patent is the type of patent that is awarded to inventions that perform useful functions. Most of the patents that are issued are of this variety, and in fact most people who simply use the term "patent" are referring to a utility patent. When one of the other forms of patent are being referenced they are usually referred to not by reference to the term patent, but rather as a "plant patent" or "design patent."

Utility patents can be obtained for a thing (i.e., a product or composition), a method for making a thing, and/or a method for using a thing. Many times the news media will report that something that is quite old or well known has been recently patented. Almost always the old thing has not been patented, but rather a new and patentable method of making the thing or perhaps a new and patentable method for using the thing is what has been patented.

A utility patent, once granted, provides the owner of the patent the right to prevent others from making, using, selling and importing a product that is covered by the utility patent. This right extends for a period of time that is 20 years after the filing date of the patent application. Under some circumstances (i.e., when delay is the fault of the government) this time period may be extended. Extensions are rare, unless the patent covers a pharmaceutical product.



Design Patents


A design consists of the visual ornamental characteristics embodied in, or applied to, an article of manufacture. Since a design is manifested in appearance, the subject matter of a design patent application may relate to the configuration or shape of an article, to the surface ornamentation applied to an article, or to the combination of configuration and surface ornamentation. A design for surface ornamentation is inseparable from the article to which it is applied and cannot exist alone. It must be a definite pattern of surface ornamentation, applied to an article of manufacture.


Design patents are last for only 14 years, are very weak and are appropriate only in limited circumstances. Nevertheless, design patents can be a useful tool in your intellectual property arsenal, particularly when you are attempting to create overlapping protection, thereby developing a true intellectual property portfolio. Having said this, it is important to know the limitations of design patents. Design patents do NOT protect an idea or an invention, but rather only protect ornamental design of exactly what is pictured. They are VERY easy to get, which is why many invention and idea companies push them on people, who unsuspectingly think they have broad protection of their idea or invention. Many patent professionals will refer to a design patent as a picture patent. This is helpful when understanding the limits of the protection. What is protected is only what is exactly pictured, nothing more, no matter how small the difference may be. Those who know patent law realize this is something of an exaggeration, but not by much. Do not rely only on design patents.



Plant Patents

Patents to plants which are stable and reproduced by asexual reproduction, and not a potato or other edible tuber reproduced plant, are provided for by Title 35 United States Code, Section 161 which states:

'Whoever invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant, including cultivated sports, mutants, hybrids, and newly found seedlings, other than a tuber propagated plant or a plant found in an uncultivated state, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of title. (Amended September 3, 1954, 68 Stat. 1190).'