They’re inventions. And they’ll earn millions this year!

Patents protect inventions

The U.S. Patent Office grants a property right to an inventor of a new product

You can have a design patent (“The Pocket Fisherman”)

You can have a process patent (how to make Coca-Cola syrup – but not the ingredients!)

A utility patent  protects the way an invention is used and works.

A plant patent is granted to those who create a new variety of plant via hybridization

Often inventors will apply for both a design and utility patent.

Patents are assigned a numberYou can look up patents online to see if

your invention has already been claimed

If you see the words “patent pending,” it means that the inventor applied and is waiting for approval

A patent in the approval process is protected

Software is patented, trademarked, copyrighted and licensed

Patents are good for 20 years

Charles H. Duell was the Commissioner of US patent office in 1899. Mr. Deull's most famous attributed utterance is that "everything that can be invented has been invented." 

Monopoly game patent: https://www.google.com/patents/US2026082

Maybe I have something I don’t want to reveal through the patent process The Krabby Patty recipe!

A Trade Secret is commercially valuable information that an owner keeps secret

If an employee who knows the secret leaves the company, they are liable if they leak the secret An example? Coca-Cola’s syrup recipe

Pharmaceutical Drugs As drugs come off patent, they can be

made by anyone. Known as “generic drugs”.

Pharmaceutical companies lose billions when their product patents expire. Why?

Why are generic drugs so much cheaper than brand name drugs?

http://www.uspto.gov/dashboards/patents/main.dashxml

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/us_stat.htm

1. Get into groups of 2-3. Someone should be the group note taker. You will be presenting to the class.

2. Think up a new product that is geared towards high school or college students. Something that is useful and practical. Write down a description.

3. Give your product a good brand name.

4. Got to: www.google.com/patents and do a search for your product. Are there any similar products that have filed for patents? Write them down and briefly describe the patent.

5. Do a trademark search for your product name. Are there any exact matches? Are there any similar matches? What are they?