{"id":2897,"date":"2023-02-19T16:11:05","date_gmt":"2023-02-19T16:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontobusiness\/chapter\/learn-it-5-3-2-intellectual-property\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T18:22:45","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T18:22:45","slug":"learn-it-5-3-2-intellectual-property","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontobusiness\/chapter\/learn-it-5-3-2-intellectual-property\/","title":{"raw":"Learn It 5.3.2: Intellectual Property","rendered":"Learn It 5.3.2: Intellectual Property"},"content":{"raw":"

Patents<\/h2>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_8705\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]\"The Figure 1. Invented by Alice Chun, the patented Solar Puff is a solar-powered inflatable light<\/a> that\u00a0was designed to provide an affordable and renewable light source to disaster-relief victims. The light\u00a0uses the principles of origami and foldable design to \u201cpop\u201d open from a flat envelope into a cube.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) describes patents<\/strong> as a property right granted to an inventor for an invention or, in the words of the Constitution, \u201cwritings and discoveries.\u201d A patent granted by the USPTO gives the holder of the patent the exclusive right to the invention for a limited period of time. Those rights include making, using, and selling the invention. The patent generally lasts for a specific period of time, starting from the date of filing the patent application, and is effective only within the United States and its territories\u2014e.g., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In order to be patentable, an invention must be novel, non-obvious, and useful. Laws protecting IP vary from country to country. To protect your invention from being sold in other countries without your permission, check out The World Intellectual Property Organization<\/a> to researching patent protection on a global scale.<\/p>\r\n

Patent term extensions are available for products such as pharmaceuticals, food additives, and medical devices that require regulatory, or government, approval prior to sale or use. The extension of time is intended to compensate for time that it takes for a product to go through necessary clinical trials and regulatory review.[footnote]Murray, John, and Heidi Dare. \"Patent Term Extension Under 35 U.S.C. \u00a7156.\" Brinks, Gilson & Lione. March 2, 2015. Accessed December 1, 2022. https:\/\/www.brinksgilson.com\/files\/biopharma_article_3.3.15.pdf<\/a>[\/footnote] The USPTO does not decide whether a product is safe or not. Other government agencies oversee that kind of regulation.<\/p>\r\n

A patent grants an inventor \u201cthe right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention in the United States or importing the invention into the United States\u201d for the patent term.[footnote]\"General Information concerning Patents.\" United States Patent and Trademark Office. Accessed December 1, 2022. https:\/\/www.uspto.gov\/patents\/basics\/general-information-patents[\/footnote] The patent from the USPTO essentially establishes who owns the invention or work in the U.S. It is the patentee\u2019s responsibility to enforce the patent if someone else is producing or selling the product without permission.<\/p>\r\n

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patent protection trade-off<\/h3>\r\n

The statutory protection that the patent provides gives the owner a monopoly over the invention for the term of the patent. However, applying for the patent requires that the inventor discloses how the invention works and how it's made and those records are available to the general public.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n

A patent application must disclose the invention in specific enough detail to prove the inventor came up with the idea and to allow a person with relevant expertise to replicate the invention. Because patents are public records, other people can look up all the details about your invention and use your idea to create another invention that is different enough to have its own patent and become your competition. Or even worse, someone could make and sell your exact invention in another country where you do not have patent protection.<\/p>\r\n

Now let's take a closer look at the three patent categories.<\/p>\r\n

Design Patents<\/h3>\r\n

As the title suggests, design patents<\/strong> are based on an item\u2019s appearance and prevent unauthorized use of a product design or design element. A design patent protects what the item looks like, not how it works or how it's used. Design patents range from the appearance of computer icons such as emojis to the Apple iPhone's thin rectangle with rounded corners. The requirement for granting a design patent is that it is a \u201cnew, original and ornamental design for an article of manufacture.\u201d[footnote]\"Design Patent Application Guide.\" United States Patent and Trademark Office. Accessed December 1, 2022. https:\/\/www.uspto.gov\/patents\/basics\/types-patent-applications\/design-patent-application-guide#def[\/footnote] A design patent granted now lasts for 15 years.[footnote]35 U.S.C. 173[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n

Utility Patents<\/h3>\r\n

Utility patents<\/strong> protect how inventions work. They are what the USPTO characterizes as \u201cthe inventor\u2019s patent\u201d and represent over 90% of patents issued. To quote the USPTO, \u201cUtility patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.\u201d The term of a utility patent is 20 years.<\/p>\r\n

If an invention is new in both its appearance and utility aspects, the inventor can seek both design and utility patents. Apple unsurprisingly has a number of utility (and design) patents, and a USPTO chart\u2014Apple Finances by Utility Patent<\/a>\u2014notes the correlation between Apple\u2019s patent numbers and financial performance. Apple has also been successful in defending its patents, including a $119.6 million dollar ruling against Samsung for violation of Apple\u2019s slide-to-unlock, text prediction, and other utility patents. [footnote]Wuerthele, Mike. \"Apple's $119.6 Million Victory in iPhone Utility Patent Battle with Samsung Finally Upheld.\" AppleInsider. November 06, 2017. Accessed June 12, 2019. https:\/\/appleinsider.com\/articles\/17\/11\/06\/apples-1196-million-victory-in-iphone-utility-patent-battle-with-samsung-finally-upheld<\/a>[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n

Oakley is another company that holds many design and utility patents for its products:
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