1. What is a patent?

A patent is an exclusive industrial property right granted for a new invention. A patent bestows the right to prevent others from (re-) producing, offering, using, distributing or selling the invention without the patent owner’s permission.

A patent is a territorial right and protects the invention only in the country for which the patent protection has been granted.

The protection is granted by patent offices for a limited period, generally 20 years. At the end of that period the protection ends and the invention enters the public domain. That is to say the owner no longer holds exclusive rights to the invention, and it becomes available to commercial exploitation by others.

2. What kinds of inventions can be protected?

Patentable inventions are:

a product
the use of a product
a method

An invention must, in general, fulfill the following conditions to be protected by a patent:

it must be new, i.e. it cannot be part of the existing state of the art (anything that was disclosed to the public in oral or written form, through use or in any other way prior to the application date). However, the are some exceptions to the rule of “absolute novelty,” and in some countries (like the United States) there exists a so called “grace period”, i.e. a specific period from the time of the disclosure during which it is possible to obtain the patent.
it must show an inventive step, i.e. it is not obvious to a person skilled in the art, with regard to the existing state of the art. The invention cannot obviously be produced from the state-of-the-art;
it must be of practical use, i.e. can be made or used in any kind of industry, including agriculture. However, “industry" is meant in this case in its broadest sense as anything distinct from purely intellectual or aesthetic activity. It does not necessarily imply the use of a machine or the manufacture of an article.

In many countries, the following results are generally considered not to be patentable inventions:

discoveries, scientific theories or mathematical methods,
aesthetic creations,
a scheme, rule or method for performing a mental act, playing a game or doing business, or computer software with no technical effect,
the presentation of information,
methods for treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy and diagnostic methods practiced on the human or animal body

Additionally, as a rule, anything that ordinarily fulfils the criteria of being an invention but contradicts “ordre public” or morality is not patentable. Plant or animal varieties or biological processes for the production of plants and animals are also not patentable.

3. How is a patent granted?

The first step to obtain a patent is to file a patent application. Generally, the patent application contains the title of the invention, an indication of its technical field, the background and a description of the invention. Such descriptions are usually accompanied by visual materials (e.g. drawings, plans, diagrams). The most important parts of the application are claims, i.e. information that determines the extent of protection granted by the patent. To be valid, a patent should enable a person skilled in that particular area to reproduce the invention.

4. Who grants patents?

Patents are, as a rule, granted by national patent offices. It is also possible to apply for a patent at a regional office that covers more than one country (e.g. the European Patent Office or the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization). Then an applicant requests, via such an office, protection for the invention in one or more countries from that region (e.g. parties to the European Patent Convention or to the Lusaka Agreement), and each country decides whether to offer patent protection within its borders.

There is also a system of so-called “international patents,” namely the WIPO-administered Patent Cooperation Treaty provides for the filing of a single international patent application that has the same effect as national applications filed in the designated countries. A single international patent application has the same effect as national applications filed in each designated Contracting State of the Patent Cooperation Treaty. In order to obtain patent protection in this way in the designated States, a patent shall be granted by each designated State for the invention named in the international application.

Work has been underway on the introduction of the Community Patent on the territory of the EC countries. The Community patent is planned as a unitary, autonomous and indivisible right governed exclusively by Community law and granted following a common procedure for the whole European Union.

Costs for obtaining a patent (administration fees, renewal fees, etc.) vary depending on the country and are announced by patent offices (e.g. on their web sites).

5. How can a patent be exploited?

A patent owner has the right to decide who may use his patented invention for the period for which the invention is protected. The patent holder may exploit the patent himself by manufacturing the product protected by his patent. Patents may also be sold, mortgaged or licensed either for payment or free of charge. The owner may sell the right to the invention to someone else, who will then become the new patent owner (patent purchaser). Through a licence, the patent owner allows another person to use the patented invention. The licence can be granted as an exclusive licence, which means that the right is conceded to only one person or entity, which will have the sole right to use the patented invention and to exclude others from doing so, or as a simple licence. In this case, the licensee is only granted the simple right to use the invention without the possibility of excluding others from such use.