The Wonderful World of Patents

The U.S. Patent Office has granted two main types of patents. These are:

1. Utility patents
2. Design patents.

Let’s talk about these different types of patents.

First, the utility patent. This is the most common type of patent although it can be fairly difficult to get. A utility patent would be used to deal with technology. It has to do with mechanics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals or software. It’s about how things work. It could be about something as simple as a screw or tool but if there is something technical about it, that’s better. It would need to be shown in the drawings or described in a table or graph or in a chemical composition. The utility patent is extremely detailed. This is about how the product functions.

Next is the design patent. This patent process is a slightly more difficult because it can overlap into the utility patent. However, this is more about what the product looks like. For example, I have a cell phone with a distinct shape and color. The buttons are of a certain material but its function, how it connects together to turn on, to charge, to explain how it works: these things go into the utility patent but the cell phones look is to be part of the design patent.

Moving on from the different types of patents, let’s look at copyright and patent laws. Copyright provides a standard on which original workers are paid for allowing another to use their work. Copyright is a form of intellectual property, pertinent to certain types of creative work. It is sometimes shared among several makers, each of whom has the right to either use or license the work. They can also be referred to as rights holders. These rights usually can tend to include reproduction, control over secondary works, circulation, and performance to the public.

Intellectual property rights can be confused with copyrights. It is, however, slightly different. Intellectual property rights are the rights that are given to a single person over the creation of their own mind, such as inventions. More often than not, they give the author exclusive rights over their creation only for a certain period of time. Unfortunately, business partners who were thought to be trusted made up over 17% of Intellectual Property attackers and former employees accounted for 21%. There is a need to protect! There are ways to protect intellectual property such as submitting a patent application for one of the different types of patents. More than half of all U.S. exports are intellectual property. This really helps to drive 40% of U.S. economic growth.

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