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Technology Transfer

Entrepreneur's Toolkit - Types of Patents and Patent-Like Rights

Types of Patents and Patent-Like Rights:

Different types of patents and patent-like rights can be part of your business's protection plan. Knowing what is available can help you choose what to pursue.

  • Utility Patents - protect functionality (the way an article is used and works) of a process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof. Typical life: 20 years from the date of filing the application.
  • Design Patents - protect non-functional ornamental designs (the way an article looks), including the shape or configuration of an article, its surface ornamentation, or both. Typical life: 14 or 15 years from the date of grant.
  • Plant Patents - protect new plants that are newly invented or discovered and that are asexually reproduced, other than a tuber-propagated plant. Typical life: 20 years from the date of filing the application.
  • Plant Variety Certificate - certificates protect seeds (sexually reproduced plants), tubers, and asexually reproduced plants. Unlike the three prior types of protection in the U.S., which are administered by the Patent Office, plant variety protection is administered by the Plant Variety Protection Office of the USDA. Typical life: 20 or 25 years from filing of application.
  • Provisional Patent Applications - an inexpensive U.S. placeholder application, typically of the "utility" (protecting function) type, that holds your place in line at the Patent Office for up to one year for what it discloses, without many of the formalities of a typical utility patent. Can never mature into an issued patent on its own and is not examined.
  • International (PCT) Applications - an international placeholder application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) that holds your place in line internationally with respect to functionality for up to 30 months from your earliest filing date. Must be filed within one year of your earliest filing date. Unlike a provisional application, it is examined for patentability, but like a provisional application, cannot mature into an issued patent - instead, country-specific applications must be filed.
  • Utility Models - protects functionality (like utility patents) of "minor" inventions or "technical" inventions in countries outside of the U.S. Are typically of lower cost, have no or less-stringent examination, and last for a shorter amount of time.
  • Industrial Designs - similar to U.S. design patents, but in other countries.

Patents vs. Applications

Patents and most patent-like rights take time, and begin with an application filed with the appropriate government agency, seeking protection. When the protection is formalized, the patent or patent-like protection is "granted" or "issued" by the government agency. At that time, enforcement within that country becomes possible. Before then, the owner lacks rights to prevent others from copying, reverse engineering, selling, importing, or offering to sell similar products. Until grant/issuance of the patent or abandonment of the application, the patent is merely "pending."

Commonly, during the time between when the patent application is filed and the time it grants or issues, the owner/applicant still wants to discourage competitors from entering the market. Owners of patent applications will commonly mark their products and product packaging with phrases like "Patent Pending" or "Patent Applied For" to let would-be competitors know that there is a risk of a patent later issuing to force them from stopping selling of competing products. Only in very rare circumstances (speak to a patent attorney) can a patent owner sue for damages of infringement that occurred while a patent was pending, not granted/issued.

Be aware that sometimes, people talk of "patents" but are really referring to pending applications. For example, there is no such thing as a "provisional patent" or an "international patent." These short-hand terms usually refer to provisional patent applications and international applications filed under the PCT, respectively.