Intellectual Property Law

Lesson 15: Types of Patents

Welcome to Lesson 15 of our instructable on Exploring Intellectual Property Law. In this lesson, we will explore the various types of patents available for protecting your inventions.

Overview of Patents

Patents are a form of intellectual property that grant exclusive rights to inventors for a limited period of time. These rights allow inventors to exclude others from making, using, selling, or importing the patented invention without permission.

Types of Patents

There are three primary types of patents:

Utility Patents
Design Patents
Plant Patents

Utility Patents

Utility patents are the most common type of patents. They are granted for new and useful inventions or discoveries of processes, machines, articles of manufacture, or compositions of matter. Utility patents protect the functional aspects of an invention.

Design Patents

Design patents are granted for new, original, and ornamental designs for articles of manufacture. Unlike utility patents, design patents protect the appearance of an invention rather than its functional aspects.

Plant Patents

Plant patents are granted for the invention or discovery and asexual reproduction of any distinct and new variety of plant. These patents protect new varieties of plants that can be reproduced asexually.

Patent Categories: A Visual Representation

graph TD; A["Types of Patents"]; A --> B["Utility Patents"]; A --> C["Design Patents"]; A --> D["Plant Patents"]; B --> E["Processes"]; B --> F["Machines"]; B --> G["Articles of Manufacture"]; B --> H["Compositions of Matter"];