A patent gives its owner the right to prevent others from making, using, selling, offering to sell, or importing the claimed invention.  In essence, a patent gives a monopoly type of right to prevent others from practicing the claimed invention as long as the patent remains in force.  This means that a patent can prevent competition.  Having an issued patent, or even just a patent application on file, can increase the value of a company in the eyes of investors.  A patent or patent application can also be licensed or sold as a way to generate revenue.  A patent can therefore be a valuable business asset.

Many types of inventions are patentable including processes, methods, machines, articles, and compositions of matter.  Improvements on existing technology can be patentable.  In addition, ornamental designs can be protected by design patents.

To be patentable, the invention must be useful, new, and non-obvious.  Being useful simply means that the invention must have a useful purpose and must work.  To be new and non-obvious, the invention, or an obvious variation of the invention, must not have been described to the public, offered for sale, or included in another inventor’s patent application before filing the patent application.  The only exception is for disclosures or offers for sale by or on behalf of the inventor, in which case the patent application must be filed within one year of the disclosure or offer for sale.  Essentially, if the patent office finds that the invention, or an obvious variation of the invention, was already in the public or filed as a patent application by someone else, or if the inventor disclosed or offered the invention for sale more than one year before filing the application, then the invention will not be patentable.

Even though an invention does not exist in the marketplace, someone may still have thought of it before you.  Because of this, it is often a good idea to have your patent attorney do a patentability search before moving ahead with filing a patent.  The patentability search typically looks for previously filed patent applications and issued patents that might make the invention unpatentable.  Even though the patentability search may not find everything, it is still a good first step toward evaluating whether your invention may be patentable.  The search also helps identify the key patentable features of the invention which can be used to strengthen the patent application.

Many times, new ideas build off of previous inventions.  Because of this, as knowledge progresses, it is common for more than one person to be developing the same or similar ideas at the same time.  However, under current US patent law, the first inventor to file the patent application has the right the patent, regardless of who actually thought of it first.  Therefore, it is important to file a patent application early.  Also, it is usually best to file the patent application before disclosing the invention to others.