Patents

Introduction

The purpose of this pathfinder is to help you find information about patents. A patent is a temporary monopoly on a product granted to the inventor for the purpose of encouraging innovation. The power to grant patents is explicit in the United State Constitution.

There are three sorts of patents: utility, design and plant. To obtain any sort of patent protection, however, an invention must meet the criteria of novelty, usefulness and non-obviousness. Utility patents apply to new inventions or functional improvements on an existing invention whereas design patents protect innovations in style or design of an existing product. Plant patents are a small category of patents that, as the name implies, protect plants. The first person to grow and reproduce the plant is considered the inventor.

Design patents are easier to obtain than utility patents. Further, design patents may apply to processes as well as products. The period of protection for a design patent, however, is fourteen years while the patent period for utility and plant patents is twenty years. The Congress may lengthen or shorten the period of patent protection in general or for a specific class of products. This issue is most often discussed in the case of pharmaceuticals and there are already classes of pharmaceuticals that are allowed a longer patent to encourage their development.

I. Constitution, Statutes, Code of Federal Regulations and Treaties

a. United States Constitution, Article 1 sec. 8 clause 8.

b. Title 35 Patents. 35 USCS 1 et seq

c. Title 37. Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights. 37 CFR 1 et seq

d. Patent Cooperation Treaty in force from April 1, 2002)

e. Trade Related Intellectual Property Issues (TRIPS)

II. Reporters. As with all cases decided under federal jurisdiction patent cases that reach the appellate level are reported in the federal reporter. There are also several reporters that report patent and intellectual cases.

a. Both Westlaw and LexisNexis contain databases of cases that relate exclusively to patents.

b. BNA United States Patents Quarterly. This is available to law students through Lexis or through BNAall

c. Patent law digest KF3106.3 .P38

d. Federal Patent Briefs: Westlaw offers Selected briefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and other courts of appeals that relate to patents. Coverage begins with 1905. Increasingly patents are an area of international significance, the following are non-U.S. reports of patent decisions

e. Entscheidungen der Beschwerdekammern des Europaeischen Patentamts = Decisions of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office K1504.2 .E97 discontinued

f. Reports of patent cases decided by courts of law in the United Kingdom. KD1366.A2 R46X

g. Canadian Patent Reporter

III. Treatises

a. Chisum on patents : a treatise on the law of patentability, validity and infringement / Donald S. Chisum. KF3110 .C45x. This treatise consists of 16 updating volumes.

b. Patent Office rules and practice / by Lester Horwitz. Detailed Rule-by-Rule Analysis of the Patent and Trademark Office Rules of Practice. KF3120.A6 H6

c. World patent litigation: treatise on systems and procedures of principal countries of the world regarding protection and infringement of patents / Editor: Hobart N. Durham. K1505 .D87

IV. Law Reviews/Periodicals

a. Harvard journal of law & technology. K8 .A782

b. Berkeley technology law journal. K2 .E495

c. Journal of intellectual property. K10 .O86189

d. Patent Trademark & Copyright Journal from BNA Online

e. Patent Trademark & Copyright Law Daily from BNA Online

f. AIPLA bulletin. (American Intellectual Property Law Association) K1 .M4622

g. AIPLA quarterly journal (American Intellectual Property Law Association) K1 .M4618

h. IDEA “The patent, trademark, and copyright journal of research and education”. K9 .D7X

i. Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society. K10 .O88193

j. Intellectual property law review. K9 .N74755

V. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website and other useful websites.

a. The United State Patent and Trademark Office website http://www.uspto.gov/ is one of the best sources for general information on patents as well as the place to begin patent searches. One may also file electronically for a patent. http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/guides.htm contains a list of guides on patents, including patent search templates, forms and pdfs of the laws concerning patents.

b. As mandated by part of the Patent Cooperation treaty the World Intellectual Property Organization maintains databases on patents from participating members. http://www.wipo.int/ipdl/en Oklahoma State/

c. University, a federal patent and trademark depository library, has assembled a page on researching patents: http://www.library.okstate.edu/patents/process.htm