A patent is a legal right that provides an intellectual property right to an applicant, who invents something useful, new, and non-obvious and files a formal patent application that provides the applicant with exclusive rights to the patented invention idea for a certain period.
One of the main reasons companies get thousands of new patents issued every year is that patents are great assets for companies since they give them exclusive commercial rights for their inventions and protect them from competition.
A key element that inventors consider before filing their patent application is whether it will succeed or not, in simple terms is the invention idea patentable or not.
Many patents are filed worldwide across many nations each year. For example, more than 600,000 patent applications are filed every year at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which includes different types of patents such as utility patents, design patents, and plant patents.
Every year the count of approval of patents varies in number. According to the latest reports from the USPTO, 48% of all patents filed are not approved or face rejection, and the remaining cover almost 52% are approved. Every year, the count of the number of patents filed and granted increases. Recently in 2021, USPTO granted more than 3 lakh patents.
There are mainly three patent types – utility patents, design patents, and plant patents.
Each type of patents has own specific eligibility criteria and protects a particular type of invention idea. In addition to this, it is possible for a particular filed of invention idea to have more than one patent.
Utility patents are patents issued across the world especially in the United States, accounting for more than two-thirds of all issued patents. It is granted for an invention that is new, useful, and non-obvious. It can include any machine, process, manufactured article, composition of matter or any invention that is improvement over previous one.
Design patent is a patent issued for designs or structures. It is not limited to and may include specific chairs, shoes, tables, machinery, fonts with novelty, unique computer icons, etc. For a design patent, a design must be aesthetic or ornamental and cannot be functional.
A patent application is an application filed for the grant of a patent typically for an invention idea found and then described by the applicant.
A proper application will comprise of a description of the invention idea (can be detailed or not initially), along with required forms and the applicable fee for the application. Each patent application fulfils a unique purpose although they are of various types.
The various types of patent application are – Provisional Application, Ordinary or Non-Provisional Application, Convention Application, PCT International Application, PCT National Phase Application, Patent of Addition, Continuing Patent Application, Divisional Patent Application, Reissue Application, Continuation In-Parts Application (CIP) etc.
A utility patent is a legal right for an invention idea that is new or improved and has some utility. It is also called “patent for the invention” and provides authorization to the applicant for a specific time, which is usually 20 years, and excludes others from making, selling, or using the invention without consent.
An individual seeking a utility patent is recommended to carry out a prior art search especially a utility patent search to see if any patented or published similar invention is available publicly.
This is advisable and critical before filing a patent to prevent filing cost loss and in a case, a similar invention is available publicly as it would be hard to get a patent on the already published invention.
A utility patent provides an inventor an exclusive right for a new service invention which, must be a new way or process of the service. It must be unique, novel, and must possess some industrial applicability. If the service invention does not exist and is patentable, one must file its patent application that will include the following:
Apart from a utility patent, there exists a design patent that lasts for 14 years from the date of filing and can also be taken for a product for which a utility patent is filed. A condition for both a utility patent and design patent is that the invention or product should have industrial applicability and serve some practical use. In addition to this, a plant patent that has life for 20 years from the filing date is given to one who has discovered or created a new variety of plants.
Utility patent can either be filed provisional followed by non-provisional or directly non-provisional. Both must include the following sections:
The sections of the provisional patent application comprise:
The sections of non-provisional utility application comprise:
The provisional application is not a full-fledged document to be filed. It can include partial information.
The non-provisional application is a full-fledged document to be filed to get a patent for an invention and it will be examined by the examiner by paying examination fee.
A patent number is a unique number for an application or issued patent and is provided by a patent office where the patent is issued.
The format of a patent number contains variety of information like the year the patent was issued, the number of the patent, country where it was issued, kind code which provide information about the application number of patents that is issued.
For example, all patents issued in United States, generally begin with “US” followed by the seven/eight digit patent number and the last part is a kind code. Each part is separated by a hyphen. A U.S. design patent number starts with a “D” or the letters “Des”.
| Kind Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
|
A |
Utility Patent Grant issued prior to January 2, 2001 |
|
A1 |
Utility Patent Application published on or after January 2, 2001 |
|
A2 |
Second or subsequent publication of a Utility Patent Application |
|
B1 |
Utility Patent Grant (no pre-grant publication) issued on or after January 2, 2001 |
|
B2 |
Utility Patent Grant (with pre-grant publication) issued on or after January 2, 2001 |
|
E |
Reissue patent |
|
P |
Plant Patent Grant issued prior to January 2, 2001 |
|
S |
Design Patent |
Please Refer Link – USPTO
Utility patents are those inventions that disclose a new product or process or improvement in an existing product or process and contribute to technological advancement in the field of invention. Utility patents are filed for a machine, a process, manufacture, a composition, or an improvement of an existing idea, and these are explained below in detail.
Example: A process for manufacturing a product like a battery.
Example: A patent for an improvised motor
Example: An optimized glove box lid
Example: New material composition for a vehicle seat
Example: Adaptive headlights in vehicle
A provisional patent application establishes and provides an inventor the earliest effective filing date which can be later claimed in the non-provisional application.
The provisional application is never examined and does not have any strict format and only lets others know that the patent for which the application is filled is in the patent-pending phase and gives the inventor 1 year of time to delay the examination cost.
In order to file a provisional utility patent, the applicant needs to do is to file a specific form (depending upon the country in which filing is done) eg, USPTO Form SB-16 for the United States.
This form should be submitted with appropriate drawings, a description of the invention idea, and an application data sheet along with the applicable fee.
The two ways to file for a utility patent are (1) first filing a provisional patent application and then filing a non-provisional patent application or (2) directly filing a non-provisional application.
Infringement of utility patent takes place on making unauthorized use of the patented invention by making, selling, using, or importing something without prior consent or license from a patent holder.
There are two types of utility patent infringements:
Patent infringement basically, falls into two categories:
To prove infringement analysis following point must be taken into consideration:
The length of a utility patent is 20 years from the non-provisional filing date of a patent application and is defined as the time for which a patent will be alive and provide legal rights to the applicant and inventor.
Utility patents will become dead or expire after 20 years from filing date of patent application and during the term of a patent (once the patent is granted), the inventor can enforce the patent rights against a competitor and prevent a competitor from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing an invention.
Once the term of patent is completed, the term cannot be extended, and the invention can be used by anyone after the expiration of the patent term. To maintain a patent in force during the term of a patent, renewal fees (or maintenance fees) are required to be paid in a timely manner after the patent gets granted.
During the term of patent, the inventor / applicant can license or sell or use the patent to obtain monetary profit from the invention. After the patent term expiry, the patent is open for use by everyone to gain knowledge.
As per utility requirement patent law, there are four requirements for utility patent(s) that need to be fulfilled and are as follows:
Hence, it is recommended to file a patent application before making any public disclosures. Further, a confidentiality agreement (CDA) or non-disclosure agreement (NDA) might be signed between the third party and the inventor, before disclosing the invention prior to filing a patent application.
To take such a decision, an examiner in the patent office will review the closest patent applications for the invention for which patent protection is sought. If no such prior art is found, then a combination of two or more prior arts can be used to find all the features of the claimed invention.
If the examiner successfully finds such a combination, then he/she can reject the invention as an obvious invention. A combination of prior art references is a very common type of patent application rejection. A combination of known prior art elements that retain their respective properties after they have been combined.
There are certain inventions such as software related and relating to certain types of medical tests and diagnostics that are likely to be challenged by this requirement of a utility patent. The inventions that do not fall under Section 101 of the Patent Act are said to be failed as per the “Subject Matter Eligibility” requirement for patent protection and do not get qualified as valid US patents.
Few examples that are outside the scope of Subject Matter Eligibility: music, literary works, compilations or arrangements of data, etc. A software claims not associated with a process or machine/device will also not fulfil the Subject Matter Eligibility requirement and hence not patentable. To solve this problem, patent attorneys will claim software in the context of a computing process or machine.
The cost of utility invention/patent is split into three key categories: (1) patent preparation and filing cost, (2) prosecution cost to get the patent granted, and (3) post-allowance fees and patent maintenance fees paid after the patent is allowed/granted, this sums up the average cost for a utility patent to $5000 – $50000.
There are two ways to file a utility patent i.e., by either directly filing a complete non-provisional application in the patent office or first filing a provisional application and within a 1-year window, submitting a further non-provisional application.
Based on the type of patent application, the cost of writing and filing utility patents in both cases will fluctuate.
The provisional patent application cost lies between $75 to $15000 & non-provisional application cost lies between $455 to $20000, and further if the inventor wants to upgrade from provisional to non-provisional application, the cost will entirely depend upon the quantity of data you included in the provisional patent application and further want to add into the non-provisional application.
Each of the above patent preparation & filing cost is further divided into below sub-categories:
1. Patent Attorney Expenses
For preparing/drafting and filing a patent, the patent attorney would calculate the related cost based on the below-mentioned parameters:
The compiled cost for the patent attorney would be more than $10,000 and this attorney fee can be ignored, if you yourself want to draft the patent, however, the inventor should focus on the quality and legal parameters of the invention during this time.
2. Skilled illustration cost, with typical varies between $50 to $125 per sheet.
3. USPTO Patent Filing Fee
The major parameters upon which the utility idea/patent filing fee depends are the length of the application, which is related to the number of pages, the number of claims (independent as well as dependent), and the type of entity (small or micro) that sought to apply for the patent.
The utility patent can either is filled electronically through EFS-Web or non-electronically by visiting the patent office and paying an additional $400 as non-electronic filing fees. Further, the filing fee is divided into the below categories and summarized well on USPTO
An examiner is assigned by USPTO, whenever a new application is filed, to search for the invention claims.
The prosecution price is highly impulsive and depends upon factors such as the quantity of rejection and office action responses during the examination, if the examiner interview is required etc., and per court hearing charges as asked by your patent attorney, which can reach an average of $10000 based on the different scenario.
After, the communication of notice of allowance, utility issue fees should be submitted i.e., $300 to $1200 dependent upon the type of entity that applied for the patent.
Further, to keep for patent alive through the lifespan of a utility patent which is 20 years from the earliest filing date, the maintenance fee is paid after specified period, and this amount is also dependent upon the type of entity that applied for the patent. Below is the maintenance fee schedule:
Also, an additional surcharge of $125 to $500 must be paid, if a case of late payment of maintenance fee within 6 months arises, and to maintain the patent, a petition for delayed payment has to be filled with an additional cost of $525 to $2100.
We, at TT Consultants, have collaborated with state-of-the-art labs and institutions to conduct reverse engineering analysis including product teardown, 3D scanning, semiconductor & PCB reverse engineering, and source code analysis.
We have an in-house team of subject matter experts to conduct source code analysis for software products and provide quality analysis on the product teardown reports.
We’ve constantly identified the value of new technology carried out by our pretty skilled executive crew with backgrounds as our professionals. Like the IP professionals we empower, our starvation for development is never-ending. We IMPROVISE, ADAPT, and IMPLEMENT in a strategic manner.
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