What You Can Patent
In patent law, the term "invention" is defined loosely so that it can encompass a wide variety of objects. Obviously, if patents have to apply to things that don't exist yet, then the legal language must be fairly vague. In addition to standard technological machines and machine advancements, you can also patent certain computer programs, industrial processes and unique designs (such as tire or shoe-tread patterns). While none of the elements in these creations are new, the inventor may have combined them in a unique and innovative way. In the language of patent law, this constitutes an invention.Some sorts of ideas are considered outside the realm of patents. No matter how innovative and beneficial they may be, certain notions are automatically public property the minute they are uncovered. The most prevalent examples of this are discoveries in the natural world. Scientists cannot patent laws of the universe, even though defining those laws may revolutionize a particular industry or change how we live. Einstein's Law of Relativity, for example, revolutionized the world of physics and will be forever linked with the man who devised it, but it has never been owned by anybody. This principle existed long before humans did, so, logically, it cannot be any person's intellectual property.
Scientists cannot patent a newly discovered plant or animal, either, though they may be able to patent a new plant or animal that was produced through genetic engineering. This is similar to the patenting of processes and computer programs: A genetic engineer didn't create any of the parts, but the combination of these parts may be novel and nonobvious, and therefore patentable
In addition to giving proper credit to individual inventors, patents help out humanity in general. In the next section, we'll see why patents are so important to a society.
|
Trailing behind Edison are Jerome Lemelson and Edwin Land. Jerome Lemelson (1923-1997) held 557 patents, and played a major part in the development of camcorders, CD players, word-processing programs, Walkmans, fax machines and automated industrial machines, among many other devices. Edwin Land (1909-1991) held 535 patents in his life, and is best known for his instant-photography techniques, which are used in Polaroid cameras. |
So far, we've seen that patents grant inventors ownership of their original ideas, giving them temporary control over who can use those ideas. This system shows up in some form or another in most all developed nations, because it is so important to a country's development. Patents affect society in a number of a ways, but at their core, they serve a very basic function: They help encourage the advancement of science and technology.
Patents do this in two major ways:
- They give inventors an opportunity to profit from their creations. The process of inventing a new device or process is an extremely difficult one, and few people would go through it if there weren't any financial reward.
- They help disseminate technological information to other inventors. When you apply for a patent, you are required to submit a detailed description of your invention. This description becomes part of the patent office's database, which is public record. Once the patent has expired, the idea is more readily available than it would have been if it had never been patented.
 Image courtesy United States Patent and Trademark Office Illustration for U.S. patent # 3,150,641, a dust cover for a dog. In addition to keeping dust off the dog, the 1964 invention is designed to keep flea-treatment products on the dog's skin while the chemicals are working. The patent explains that the dust cover could also be used to dry the dog after a bath. You blast a hair dryer into the provided port, and the hot air circulates all around the dog's body. |
Patents motivate individual inventors, but they also motivate large companies. They are particularly important to chemical, computer-technology and pharmaceutical firms. In these markets, your success might be wholly dependent on having exclusive rights to innovative products. Intellectual property makes up a huge chunk of these companies' assets. Currently, IBM leads the pack in the invention race, boasting more than 2,000 patents in 1999 and again in 2000.
When something is invented as part of a person's work for a company, the company is typically given control over the invention, though the patent may officially go to the individual inventor. This arrangement varies depending on the country and the nature of the employee's contract. If you are contracted to grant your employer all patent rights to your work, selling your own invention would actually be infringing your own patent (and your employer could take you to court). The same holds for copyrighted "work-for-hire." You may be the original creator, but if you republish the work yourself, you are infringing the copyright.
In the next section, we'll find out how an inventor actually goes about patenting an idea. As we'll see, this is usually a long, expensive and difficult process.
