by Jim J Jones

Created on: June 16, 2010

The patent can be best described as a copyright for a invention, a guarantee that those among us with clever ideas are guaranteed a return on their investment of time, energy and creativity, when they come up with a new idea. The patent insures that the idea cannot be stolen by someone less committed or less creative, and it does this by restricting the right to sell a particular product, or any obvious derivation thereof, to the person who first came up with the idea and patented it. Obviously, he has the choice of whether or not to license out these rights to other manufacturers, for a royalty.

Of course, you can not just get a patent for any idea. The patent being a protection for new ideas can only rarely be applied to a preexisting idea, unless it is a truly new, innovative, and original way of designing something. For example, if you design a four legged table and paint it blue, and file for a patent on the grounds that painting the table blue makes this a new and unique table, the patent application will be rejected. While there may be no blue tables with four legs, painting a table blue is obvious in the judgement of the patent office, and therefore your table will either already have a patent on it (that of the guy who patented the original table), or it will be ineligible for a patent because it is an obvious derivation of something that was not your idea (the table was not your idea, therefore you cannot hold a patent on any obvious derivation of it).

Another situation in which a patent application will often be rejected is if it is an obvious derivation of something you have already patented. Pharmaceutical companies, in an effort to stave off generic drug makers, will often release a "new" drug just as a patent for an old, similar drug expires. The new drug is usually incredibly similar to the original drug, and therefore should be considered and obvious derivation in most cases. The rule forbidding this sort of double patenting is known (not at all surprisingly) as the principle of double patenting.

Patents can be rejected for being too broad. Let's say you just designed the first lawnmower. While you can patent the new lawnmower, you have to be very precise about what it is, in terms of shape, size, energy source, function, etc. For example, you probably could not sue for patent infringement if someone sold an electric lawnmower based on your design, if the lawnmower you patented was gasoline fueled.

Learn more about this author, Jim J Jones.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.