PatentsLand grants were sometimes called "letters patent", which was a government notice to the public of a grant of an exclusive right to ownership and possession. Some countries have "working provisions" which require that the invention be exploited in the jurisdiction it covers. A patent being an exclusionary right does not, however, necessarily give the owner of the patent the right to exploit the patent. Consequences of not working an invention vary from one country to another, ranging from revocation of the patent rights to the awarding of a compulsory license awarded by the courts to a party wishing to exploit a patented invention. Like any other property right, it may be sold, licensed, mortgaged, assigned or transferred, given away, or simply abandoned. The rights conveyed by a patent vary country-by-country. For example, in the United States, a patent covers research, except "purely philosophical" inquiry. The exclusive right granted to a patentee in most countries is the right to prevent or exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell or importing the invention. For example, many inventions are improvements of prior inventions which may still be covered by someone else's patent. If an inventor takes an existing patented mouse trap design, adds a new feature to make an improved mouse trap, and obtains a patent on the improvement, he or she can only legally build his or her improved mouse trap with permission from the patent holder of the original mouse trap, assuming the original patent is still in force. A patent is, in effect, a limited property right that the government offers to inventors in exchange for their agreement to share the details of their inventions with the public. The term "patent" usually refers to a right 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. Typically, however, a patent application must include one or more claims defining the invention, which must be new, inventive, and useful or industrially applicable. A U.S. patent is infringed by any "making" of the invention, even a making that goes toward development of a new invention - which may itself become subject of a patent. A patent is not a right to practice or use the invention. Rather, a patent provides the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention for the term of the patent, usually 20 years from the filing date. Examples of particular species of patents for inventions include biological patents, business method patents, chemical patents and software patents. A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a patentee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an invention. In contrast, Australian law permits others to build on top of a patented invention, by carving out exceptions from infringement for those who conduct research (e.g. for academic purposes) on the invention. The procedure for granting patents, the requirements placed on the patentee and the extent of the exclusive rights vary widely between countries according to national laws and international agreements. Some other types of intellectual property rights are referred to as "patents" in some jurisdictions: industrial design rights are called "design patents" in some jurisdictions (they protect the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian), plant breeders' rights are sometimes called "plant patents", and utility models are sometimes called "petty patents". The additional qualification "utility patents" is used in countries such as the United States to distinguish them from other types of patents but should not be confused with utility models granted by other countries. | |
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