What is a patent?

A patent is a grant from the government. To get one, a person must claim something that is new and useful, and describe it well enough for others in the field to make and use. In exchange, its owner gets the exclusive right to make, use, sell, and import whatever the patent claims for a period twenty years.

What is the patent system?

The patent system is the system that makes, interprets, and enforces the laws that govern patent rights—the Patent Act or Title 35 of the U.S. Code. The institutions responsible for doing so are the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, federal district courts across the country, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the Supreme Court.

What is the purpose of the patent system?

The purpose of the patent system is to “promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8. The Constitution does not give the government the power to grant exclusive rights to inventors for other purposes.

Does the public have an interest in the patent system?

Yes. When the Patent Office grants a patent, everyone other than the patent owner loses their legal right to develop or use technology within the bounds of the patent’s claims. Anyone who does so without the patent owner’s permission can be ordered to pay damages and stop using the technology altogether—even if they independently invented it. 

Does someone have to build an invention to get a patent?

No. Getting a patent does not require physically building an invention. It is enough to claim and describe an invention in the words of a patent application.

Has the patent system always worked the way it does today?

No. The patent system has changed in countless ways over more than two centuries. For example, from 1790 to 1880, patent applicants were required to submit physical models of their inventions. A few are pictured below.