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The United States patent law is a first-to-invent patent legal framework. By contrast, all other national patent laws are first-to-file systems. Only the Philippines has also had a first-to-invent patent system, but converted it into a first-to-file system in 1998. The provisions of the law are laid out in title 35 of the United States Code (U.S.C.).
In the U.S., a patent is a right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, exporting, exporting components to be assembled into an infringing device outside the U.S., importing the product of a patented process practiced outside the U.S., inducing others to infringe, offering a product specially adapted for practice of the patent, and a few other very carefully defined categories. Thus, merely thinking about an invention, or drawing a diagram, is not an infringement. Research for "purely philosophical" inquiry is not an infringement, but research directed to commerical purposes is - unless the research is directed toward obtaining approval of the Food and Drug Administration for introduction of a generic version of a patented drug.
See also
Concepts
- Assignor estoppel
- Continuing patent application
- Design patent
- First-sale doctrine
- Inequitable conduct
- Information disclosure statement (IDS)
- Interference proceeding
- Non-obviousness
- Non-provisional patent application
- Novelty
- On-sale bar
- Petition to make special
- Prosecution history estoppel
- Provisional application
- Reduction to practice
- Reexamination
- Reissue application
- Small entity status
- Software patents under United States patent law
- Statutory Invention Registration
- Submarine patent
- Term of patent in the United States
- Utility
- X-Patent
Legislation
- First Patent Act - April 7 1790
- American Inventors Protection Act (AIPA)
- Bayh-Dole Act
- Invention Secrecy Act (1951)
- Patent Reform Act of 2005
- Plant Patent Act (1930)
Patent-related decisions
Supreme Court
- Bauer & Cie. v. O'Donnell (1913)
- Diamond v. Chakrabarty (1980)
- EBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C. (2006)
- Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co. (2002)
- Graver Tank & Manufacturing Co. v. Linde Air Products Co. (1950)
- Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc. (1996)
- Merck v. Integra (2005)
- Parker v. Flook (1963)
- Pfaff v. Wells Electronics, Inc. (1998)
- Warner-Jenkinson Company, Inc. v. Hilton Davis Chemical Co. (1997)
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI)
Unclassified
Other
- American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA)
- Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI)
- Confederate Patent Office
- List of top United States patent recipients
- Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP)
- United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
- United States Patents Quarterly (USPQ)
- European patent law
- Japanese patent law
- United States copyright law
- United States trademark law
External links
"United States patent law"