patent
Sign in to savethumb|A patent issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office|U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
AI overview
A patent is a legal protection granted by the government that gives an inventor exclusive rights to make, use, or sell their invention for a limited period of time. This protection matters because it encourages people to develop new inventions by ensuring they can benefit from their work without others copying it during that time.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
23 sectionsContents
- Definition
- History
- Gender gap in patents
- Innovation decline
- Law
- Effects
- Challenges
- Infringement
- Enforcement
- Ownership
- Governing laws
- Anti-biopiracy dispositions
- Application and prosecution
- Costs
- Non-national treatment in the application procedure
- Alternatives
- Benefits
- Criticism
- Anti-patent initiatives
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|A patent issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office|U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time, in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention. In most countries, patent rights fall under private law and the patent holder must sue someone infringing the patent in order to enforce their rights.