Patent

A patent is a property right in inventions, that is, in devices or processes that perform a “useful” function.¹¹ A new or improved mousetrap is an example of a type of device which may be patented. A patent effectively grants the inventor a limited monopoly on the manufacture, use, or sale of the invention. However, a patent actually only grants to the patentee the right to exclude (i.e., to prevent others from practicing the patented invention); it does not actually grant to the patentee the right to use the patented invention.¹²

Not every innovation or discovery is patentable. The U.S. Supreme Court has, for example, identified three categories of subject matter that are unpatentable, namely “laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas.”¹³ Reducing abstract ideas to some type of “practical application,” i.e., “a useful, concrete and tangible result,”¹⁴ is patentable, however. U.S. patents, since June 8, 1995, last from the date of issuance until twenty years from the original filing date of the patent application¹⁵ (the previous term was seventeen years from date of issue).