Easy Patent Guide

Things are looking a bit gloomy for the Blackberry, PDA cousin to the Pocket PC.

The latest appeal over a patent dispute has been turned down, making an injunction against selling the Blackberry in the US all the more possible.

I’ve always thought that if you did your research and opted to purchase one of these devices, you weren’t interested in much besides its contact management features.

Acquiring US patents give an inventor exclusive rights on the invention. Others could not make, use, import, sell or offer to sell the invention without the inventor’s permission. US patents can be obtained on “inventions”. Inventions include any new and useful machine, process, article of manufacture, composition of matter (such as a new chemical composition), and improvements on any of these things. Virtually anything that is new and made by man is subject matter eligible for patent protection.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are tasked with issuing patents to inventors which give them the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling their invention in the United States. In exchange for this grant, the inventors must disclose their invention to the public in the form of a patent application.

US Patent numbers were issued since 1836. The very first issued was simply the number 1. In some European countries particularly in England and Italy, patents have been granted since the 1600s. The United States began granting patents in 1790. The first Patent Act came out and was signed into effect by George Washington on April 10, 1790. Three and a half months later, on July 31, 1790, the first U.S. patent for a Method of Making Pot Ash Useful in Soap Production was issued to Samuel Hopkins of Philadelphia. But it was only in 1836 that US patent numbers appear. Obviously, US Patent Number 1 was not issued to the very first invention. The first US patent numbers was issued to Senator John Ruggles as the inventor of a locomotive steam engine. By 1871, over 100,000 US Patent numbers had been issued.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has offered inventors the option of filing sample provisional patent applications since June 8, 1995. Sample provisional patent applications were designed to provide a lower-cost first patent filing in the United States and to give U.S. applicants parity with foreign applicants under the GATT Uruguay Round Agreements. Sample provisional patent applications allow filing without a formal patent claim, oath or declaration, or any information disclosure or prior art statement. It provides the means to establish an early effective filing date in a non-provisional patent application filed. It also allows the term “Patent Pending” to be applied.

Last June 8, 1995, the provisional patent application offered by United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) took effect. Provisional patent application provides a lower-cost first patent filing in the United States and to give U.S. applicants parity with foreign applicants under the GATT Uruguay Round Agreements. Provisional patent application allows filing without a formal patent claim, oath or declaration, or any information disclosure or prior art statement. It also allows the term “Patent Pending” to be applied.

In applying for patent licensing it is good to note that there are three types of patents granted by the U.S. Patent Office, http://www.uspto.gov: utility patents, design patents and plant patents. The most common type applied for in patent licensing is a “utility” patent. A utility patent covers what an invention is or how it functions. A utility patent is effective from the date it is issued and lasts for 20 years from the date it was applied for. The second is the design patent which covers the ornamental features of a manufactured item. Design patents cover only how something looks, not how it works. A design patent lasts for 14 years from the date it is issued. Plant patents cover asexually reproduced plants.