patent system
Inventor's legal shield
A patent system is the legal framework by which governments grant inventors exclusive rights to make, use, or sell their inventions for a limited period—typically twenty years.
In exchange, inventors must publicly disclose how their invention works, adding to collective knowledge.
The system aims to encourage innovation by protecting inventors from immediate competition while eventually releasing inventions into the public domain.
Critics argue patent systems can stifle innovation when patents are too broad or when "patent trolls" acquire patents solely to sue: The pharmaceutical patent system keeps drug prices high for decades.
- trade secretHidden business knowledge
- prior artPre-existing technical knowledge
- licensing agreementsContracts granting usage rights
- monopoly rightsSole authority to sell
- fileStored collection of data
innovation · USPTO · intellectual property law · breakthrough · knowledge sharing · trademark law · copyright law · startup ecosystem · granted · expired · troll · intellectual property · protection · filing · monopoly · pending · portfolio · royalties
- Early RepublicGeorge Washington, Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Constitutional Convention
- Patent Terms
- patentspatents, USPTO, EPO, PCT, pharmaceutical patents
- drug patentsdrug patents, exclusivity, generics, generic drugs, biologics
- East German Scienceresearch institutes, technical universities, state universities
patent systemtrade secrets
Protected commercial knowledge
secrecy · concealment · non-disclosure · non-disclosure agreements
patent systemopen source
Publicly accessible code
public domain · creative commons · copyleft · open access · communal knowledge