Patent Rights in the Modern Day
A patent is a grant from a governmental entity giving an inventor the rights to control the use of his invention. In the United States, the governmental authority to grant the right comes from the United States Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8, which states:
….The Congress shall have the power ….. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right of their respective writings and discoveries.
From that Constitutional directive, Congress enacted federal laws which define the various exclusive rights, and manner in which they can be protected. Congress also created federal agencies to control the issuance of these rights to the entities seeking them.
What is a Patent?
What is Patentable Subject Matter?
What is a Patent Grant?
How do You Obtain and Defend a Patent Grant?
Patent Infringement and the Entrepreneur and Individual Inventor
Intellectual property theft is at a crisis stage. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office estimates the United States’ economy loses $250 billion and 750,000 jobs each year because of patent theft and other types of stolen intellectual property. And small businesses and individual inventors may have it the worst. Not only do they have to guard their intellectual property against the corporate espionage of big business, but in order to compete in the global market, they have to protect themselves abroad.
But the USPTO, lead by Under Secretary of Commerce Jon Dudas, is trying to help American inventors protect intellectual property. The office’s Stop Fakes campaign aims to teach inventors about guarding their intellectual property.
When small businesses and individual inventors believe their patents are being infringed upon, they often can’t keep up financially with the powerful corporate legal teams who defend infringing corporations. But its important to know there are resources to protect your rights.
Do You Suspect Patent Infringement?
How do Inventors Stop Patent Infringement?
