What Are the Many Forms of Patents?

What you’ll discover:

Patents for Utility
Patents for Designs
Patents for Plants
Patents that are unique

One of the most effective strategies to keep control over your intellectual property is to patent your unique innovation. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) accepts three fundamental categories of patent applications, each of which relates to a distinct sort of intellectual property.

Patents for Utility

Utility patents are by far the most frequent kind of patent granted by the USPTO, accounting for nine out of every ten patent applications. A utility patent is designed to protect new and useful innovations such as a technique, a machine, a method of production, a matter composition, or a similarly new and equally beneficial improvement to an existing invention. This is a rather wide category. Patents are valid for 20 years if the USPTO maintenance fees are paid on schedule.

Patents for Designs

Design patents, which are intended for innovative, unique, and decorative designs that may be used on items, also prohibit anyone other than the owner from using, producing, or selling the design. The patent is valid for 14 years and, unlike the utility patent, does not need any maintenance costs to be paid.

Patents for Plants

This intriguing patent is granted for novel, different plant variants produced or found by cultivation, mutation, hybridization, or any other artificial procedure. The same exclusive rights as with other patents are provided. Yet, even if the duration is for 20 years, there are no maintenance payments for the patent.

Patents that are unique

The USPTO also grants two categories of patents. A reissue patent is one that is granted to remedy a mistake in an existing patent. A defensive publication is the polar opposite of a patent in that it is used to advertise patentable material in such a manner that others are unable to patent the invention, design, or plant. In essence, it assures that the data is always available and that no one has a monopoly on it.