Patent
A patent is a government grant to an inventor of the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention, usually for a limited period. Patents are granted for new and useful machines, manufactured products, and industrial processes and for significant improvements of existing ones. Patents also are granted for new chemical compounds, foods, and medicinal products, as well as for the processes used to produce them. In some countries patents can be granted even for new forms of plant or animal life developed through genetic engineering.[1]
History
The first recorded patent for an industrial invention was granted in 1421 in Florence to the architect and engineer Filippo Brunelleschi. The patent gave him a three-year monopoly on the manufacture of a barge with hoisting gear used to transport marble. It appears that such privileged grants to inventors spread from Italy to other European countries during the next two centuries. In many cases governments issued grants for the importation and establishment of new industries, as in England at the time of Queen Elizabeth I (reigned 1558–1603). However, the sentiment slowly grew that the English crown was abusing its authority to grant such rights, and the Privy Council and then the common-law courts began to scrutinize patents more carefully. Finally, in 1623 Parliament enacted the Statute of Monopolies. Although the statute prohibited most royal monopolies, it specifically preserved the right to grant "letters patent" for inventions of new manufactures for up to 14 years.
In the United States the Constitution authorizes Congress to create a national patent system to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" by "securing for limited Times to ... Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective ... Discoveries" (Article I, Section 8). Congress passed the first Patent Statute in 1790. France enacted its patent system the following year. By the end of the 19th century, many countries had patent laws, and today there are more than 100 separate jurisdictions regarding patents.[1]
Patents in the US
In the United States a patent is a property right in inventions, that is, in devices or processes that perform a "useful" function. 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. (Suppose A invents and patents a better mousetrap, which has a Nitinol (memory metal) spring for better snapping ability. Now suppose B invents and patents a mousetrap with a Nitinol spring covered with non-stick coating, to improve the ability to remove mouse remains while still providing the Nitinol-driven snapping action. B has to have a mousetrap with a Nitinol spring in order to use his invention, but this would infringe upon A’s patent. Similarly, A cannot add the non-stick coating to his own invention without infringing upon B’s improvement patent. In such situations, the two patentees may crosslicense, so that A can practice B’s improvement to the mousetrap, and so B can use his own invention.)
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." Reducing abstract ideas to some type of "practical application," i.e., "a useful, concrete and tangible result," 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 application (the previous term was seventeen years from date of issue).[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Encyclopædia Britannica. "patent. (2011).", referenced 2011-09-08.
- ↑ Stephan Kinsella. Against Intellectual Property, page 10-11. Referenced 2011-09-08.