Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC)

A patent is a type of intellectual property protection that gives the inventor "the right to 'exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling' an invention or 'importing' it into the U.S.". There are three types of patents:

• A utility patent protects how an invention works, functions, or is made for twenty years from the filing date. Can cover a process, machine, article of manufacture or composition of matter.
• A design patent protects the way a product or article of manufacture looks for fifteen years from the date the patent is granted.
• A plant patent protects newly invented strains of asexually reproducing flowering plants, fruit trees, and other hybrid plants for twenty years from the filing date.

In order to be patentable, an invention must be: new, non-obvious, useful and fully disclosed.