Sunday, June 27, 2010

Types of Patents

There are three types of patents; Utility Patent, Design Patent and Plant Patent. A Utility Patent is used to protect a useful process, machine, article of manufacture or composition of matter, it is the hardest and most expensive to get. A design patent is for protecting the ornamental characteristics of some widget, it is fairly easy to get and much cheaper. The Plant Patent is for protecting a new variety of asexually produced plant. (Information gleaned from the USPTO website)
One common complaint that I have seen in my research of the ‘patent mill companies’ is that they are quick to steer people towards the Design Patent because they are fairly easy to get. The ‘patent mill companies’ can easily push these because most people think that having a patent, any patent, protects their intellectual property, however this is not necessarily true. A Design Patent should only be used when your invention is of some ornamental nature. Let us say a water bottle that has a particular shape, maybe looks like a dolphin. In this case the dolphin shape is what is covered under the patent not the water bottle. Now here is the rub. If you get a Design Patent for some sort of mechanical widget and it is a great marketable idea, all some company has to do is change the way it looks (ornamental characteristics) and mass produce it. They have not infringed on your patent rights because all you had were the rights to the way it looked.
The Plant Patent is exactly like it sounds here is an example;
http://www.lacebarkinc.com/brouchures/dyn1.pdf
My plan is to pursue a Utility Patent for my idea. . .

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