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| Cold Fusion |
 Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 3:36 am Post subject: PATENTS |
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Forum Ph.D.
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Posts: 739
Location: In the circuitous haze of my mind
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Not sure if this topic is out of place but:
To this point I was under the impression that patents last 20 years, where you unconditionally have full rights and control to the invention and can choose whether to lease it to companies for royalties or not.
But someone I know just told me that patents only last 7 years, while the other 13 years, anyone can use your patent, but they have to pay a set price through the government or something.
Is this at all true? I never saw this on the USTPO website, and I have done some real reading on patents with noting like this coming up.
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| Ophiolite |
| Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 4:10 am Post subject: |
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Forum Radioactive Isotope
Joined: 25 Jul 2005
Posts: 4486
Location: Scotland
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You may find this link to the US Patents Office useful. I haven't searched for an answer to your query on the site, but it is quite likely there.
http://www.uspto.gov/
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The Universe is not only weirder than we imagine it is weirder than we can imagine. J.B.S.Haldane. |
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| sunshinewarrior |
| Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 6:27 am Post subject: |
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Forum Ph.D.
Joined: 26 Sep 2007
Posts: 972
Location: London
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From ophiolite's link:
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| A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Generally, the term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, in special cases, from the date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees. U.S. patent grants are effective only within the United States, U.S. territories, and U.S. possessions. Under certain circumstances, patent term extensions or adjustments may be available. |
Note some of the qualifications. In practice, the most commercially critical patents tend to be those for pharmaceuticals. In these cases, thanks to the length of time needed to conduct trials and satisfy, say, the USFDA, the company will only have 7 - 13 years of the patent left to actually market the product. Ergo, the commercial life of the patent is usually much shorter (though not a fixed period) than the actual lifespan of 20 (or whatever) years. |
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