What am I allowed to obtain a patent for?

The laws surrounding trademarks, copyrights, and patents can start to blend together and get confusing if you are not familiar with the variations that exist between each category. There is also a lot of confusion about what types of intellectual property a person can obtain a patent for. Any truly unique idea that is considered useful in the eyes of the United States Patent and Trademark Office can be patented. Your idea may fall into one of the three categories that patents are broken into. These include utility patents, design patents, and plant patents.

The USPTO will not grant you a patent if they believe that your idea is too similar to an existing patent, if it is considered too obvious, if it isn’t useless, and if isn’t violating any current patent laws. The USPTO allows patents to be approved if they believe they are beneficial for the advancement of science or humanity. There are many different possibilities for when a person wants to protect their intellectual property. It is important that you do research to make sure that your patent falls into these classifications. Your patent can be considered a design patent, a utility patent, or a plant patent. What you should know is that you can’t patent an idea. You have to come up with the machine or product and it can’t just be based on an idea or suggestion.

If you have a concept that you would like to patent, it is important that you speak with an experienced intellectual property attorney who can help you conduct a patent search and determine whether your patent is viable. Contact our firm today.

Contact the Law Offices of Richard E. Novak today to discuss the facts and circumstances surrounding your New Jersey traffic violations, intellectual property or business litigation matters.