• prescription drug formulas; • firearms; • locks; • plumbing; • engines; • coating processes; and • business processes.
Once a patent is granted it provides the inventor with protection from others infringing on his or her patent. A patent holder has the right to “exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted.” 7 As with copyright, patent protection lasts for a limited period of time before the invention or process enters the public domain. In the US, a patent lasts twenty years. This is why generic drugs are available to replace brand-name drugs after twenty years.
Obtaining Patent Protection
Unlike copyright, a patent is not automatically granted when someone has an interesting idea and writes it down. In most countries a patent application must be submitted to a government patent office. A patent will only be granted if the invention or process being submitted meets certain conditions. • Must be original . The invention being submitted must not have been submitted before. • Must be non-obvious . You cannot patent something that anyone could think of. For example, you could not put a Information Systems for Business and Beyond (2019) pg. 266
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