A patent is a type of
legal property right.
Just as owning real
estate property gives you the right to exclude others from trespassing on your
land, a patent also gives you the right to exclude others from
"trespassing" on your invention. In the US, patents may be granted
for a limited time for new and useful processes, machines, products, and
compositions of matter.
Just as land has
definite boundaries specified by a survey, a patent has definite boundaries
specified in its claims. If someone else makes, uses, or sells what is within
the scope of the claims of a patent, then they are "trespassing" on
the patent rights ("infringing" is the legal term used). And just as
a real estate owner can lease out their land to renters, a patent owner can
license the patent to others.
Just as an owner of
real estate property must pay property tax to the government, an owner of a
patent also must pay the government a property tax (called a maintenance fee,
renewal or annuity).
This is a rough
analogy, that breaks down if you push it too far. For example, whereas real
estate property boundaries are usually non-overlapping, the boundaries of
patent rights can intersect and overlap. Another difference is that patent
rights expire after a limited time, usually 20 years from the time the patent
application is filed. And, whereas real estate property is tied to pre-existing
real land, patents are intellectual property that are virtual in the sense that
the rights are tied to making, using, or selling anything within the general
scope defined by the claims.
There is a lot more to
say about what kinds of things can and can not be patented, the criteria that
must be met for an invention to be considered patentable, the process of
preparing a patent application, filing it, and getting it granted, and so on.
But the above hopefully gives basic idea of what a patent is.
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We have specialized in the preparation and registration of patents, trademarks
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Source: Quora
