Patent Applications

Patents are legal documents and should be drafted by a registered patent attorney or agent. A patent attorney or a patent agency such as InventHelp can help identify the patentable components of the invention and can design a patent strategy for your business plan or goals.

The following is a brief description of the different types of patent applications:

A Utility Patent is what most think of when they imagine a patent. Utility Patents protect new and useful products and processes. A Utility Patent can be very broad and is usually preferred if the invention performs a useful function or a useful process. Examples of Utility Patents are pharmaceuticals, methods to treat medical conditions, devices for performing particular operations and the like. A Utility Patent typically has a term of about 20 years from filing and has a number of formal requirements.

A Design Patent protects the ornamental features of a device. In other words, a Design Patent protects the look of the invention. Design Patents are typically much narrower in scope than Utility Patents. Design Patents have a term of 14 years.

A Provisional Patent Application does not issue as a U.S. Patent. However a Provisional Patent Application provides the Inventor a priority date and a 1 year grace period to file a Utility Patent Application and/or a PCT International Patent Application. Although Provisional Patent Applications do not require many of the formalities as a Utility Patent Application (and can therefore be less expensive) a Provisional Patent Application should comply with the written description requirement including best mode. A Provisional Patent Application does not effect the term of a resulting issued U.S. Patent.

A PCT Patent Application is also commonly referred to as an International Patent Application. A PCT Patent Application never issues as a Patent itself. The PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) provides a centralized method for filing a patent application throughout most of the industrialized world (excluding Taiwan). Thus, the patent application eventually must enter the national stage of each desired country. There are helpful videos for inventors on Youtube that could help.

A U.S. National Stage Patent Application may be filed from a PCT Application designating the U.S. in the Request. A National Stage application issues as a U.S. Patent and has an effective priority date according to the PCT. Inventors may wish to discuss benefits of a continuation-in-part patent (CIP) application from a PCT with their U.S. patent attorney.

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