Suppose that you have come up with a great idea for a new invention that, to your knowledge, is not currently sold in the market. Since you’ve never seen this kind of invention before, you likely assume that you will easily be able to patent it. However, the requirements of patentability are not quite so simple. Generally, inventions must be new, useful, and non-obvious in order to be patentable. While the “utility” element of patentability is easily met in most cases, the novelty and non-obviousness requirements are a bit more complex. Below, an Alabama patent attorney provides a high-level overview of what a patent applicant must show to obtain a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Patents
Being sued for patent infringement can be a frightening process. Patent litigation can take a significant toll on a business and result in thousands or even millions of dollars in damages. Even if you did the most diligent patent searching and determined that your product does not infringe anyone else’s patent, you still may have missed something, or perhaps your product infringes only a portion of someone else’s patent. If you are sued for patent infringement, you need to be prepared to defend yourself from the allegations using one or more defenses to patent infringement. An Alabama patent litigation attorney goes over the major ones below.
Patent rights are negative rights. Rather than entitling the holder to use the technology claimed in a patent, the patent entitles the holder to exclude others from making, using, selling, or otherwise “practicing” the claimed invention — even if the holder is not actually using the patent. While this may seem strange at first glance, the Intellectual Property Clause of the Constitution grants to authors and inventors “the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” One who makes, uses, or sells a patent invention infringes the holder’s patent and is liable to the patent holder for damages. But there are several distinct types of patent infringement, as an Alabama IP litigation lawyer explains.
As advancements are made in the medical industry, inventors of medical devices need to be aware of the importance of ensuring their intellectual property (IP) is adequately protected. Perhaps the best way to demonstrate why IP protection is essential is to examine the different types of IP protection and how they apply to medical devices, and what can happen when companies forgo the important first step of properly protecting their devices and processes for medical device IP.
The world we live in is constantly evolving, and the commercial, technological landscape is growing by leaps and bounds. In fact, 84% of the value of S&P 500 companies in 2018 consisted of intangibles, such as intellectual property (IP) rights. As a result, it is difficult for investors to ignore the many advantages of investing in IP.