Patent Registration in .

There are four different types of patents. This includes utility patent, provisional patent, design patent, and plant patent. Before going into the details, you must understand the requirements for getting a patent. These altogether sum upto being five requirements in total.

1. The innovation/invention is patentable subject matter: Businesses and individuals need to understand that not everything can be patented. What can be patented includes new products like toys, appliances, tools, medical devices, pharmaceutical drugs, new manufacturing processes or industrial methods, softwares, business methods, biological material (some type).
2. The innovation is new (this is known as Novelty): A patent is taken out for something that is new, an innovation, thus you cannot patent something that is already in the public’s domain or in other words; it is publicly known. As soon as you file an application, it is tested for novelty. It is extremely important for this reason, to keep the product, invention or process to yourself and if your are disclosing this information to someone else, you should have a confidentiality agreement signed with them.
3. The innovation is inventive: This basically means that invention, process or product should not be ‘obvious’ to any skilled person. What you plan on getting patented should be unique and not something deemed ordinary.
4. The ‘utility’ or usefulness of the innovation: The innovation, process or product should be useful and functional. This does not relate to people buying it rather relates to being capable of what it claims to do. If it does not fulfull the information and claims in the patent, it fails this requirement.
5. Must not have prior-use: If you have been using the process or have the product licensed before, it is not qualified for a patent. There should be no prior use of what you are trying to get patented.

Similarly, some patents cannot be registered, including artistic creations, mathematical algorithms or models, mental concepts or processes, plans or schemes, principles or theories.

There are 4 types of patents:

• Utility Patent: This is the most common type of patent. The Congress defines the kinds of inventions protected by this patent. The patent describes the public on the new machine or process. The patent document consists of all the technical information and the how-to for the new machine, process or system, educating the public. 

• Design Patent: As the name depicts, this patent protects the design/shape of the invention or product. The document contains mostly pictures or drawings of the design on the product/item. It is difficult to search for design patents because they have minimal words rather contain mostly pictures.

• Provisional Patent: Acquiring a proper patent may take a lot of time, in some cases it can take upto 5 years. This is why the law in USA allows inventors to provisionally protect their inventions. This is a less formal way of proving that the invention was the property of the inventor i.e. it was in the possession of the inventor and he had known how to make the invention work. This gives the invention a ‘patent pending’ status. The inventor has to file for the utility patent within 1 year of getting the patent pending status. If they fail to do so, they will lose the filing date.

• Plant Patent: These types of patents protect plants that are new, and made through asexual means or cutting. This does not generally include genetically modified plants.