Useful tips and step-by-step guidance from filing to issue to license Acquire and protect your share of this major business asset Want to secure and exploit the intellectual property rights due you or your company? This easy-to-follow guide shows you how — helping you to evaluate your idea's commercial potential, conduct patent and trademark searches, document the invention process, license your IP rights, and comply with international laws. Plus, you get detailed examples of each patent application type! Discover how to: Avoid application blunders Register trademarks and copyrights Meet patent requirements Navigate complex legal issues Protect your rights abroad The entire body of U.S. patent laws Example office actions and amendments Sample forms Trademark registration certificates Application worksheets See the CD appendix for details and complete system requirements. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

The U.S. patent system is in an accelerating race with human ingenuity and investments in innovation. In many respects the system has responded with admirable flexibility, but the strain of continual technological change and the greater importance ascribed to patents in a knowledge economy are exposing weaknesses including questionable patent quality, rising transaction costs, impediments to the dissemination of information through patents, and international inconsistencies. A panel including a mix of legal expertise, economists, technologists, and university and corporate officials recommends significant changes in the way the patent system operates. A Patent System for the 21st Century urges creation of a mechanism for post-grant challenges to newly issued patents, reinvigoration of the non-obviousness standard to quality for a patent, strengthening of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, simplified and less costly litigation, harmonization of the U.S., European, and Japanese examination process, and protection of some research from patent infringement liability.

"This comprehensive book is the first of its kind to take scientists and engineers beyond simply getting a patent granted. Through the author's extensive technical background and experience in intellectual property licensing, it ties the many technical, legal and business aspects of patent enforcement to the innovation and patenting stage in the patent value chain, with the objective of helping inventors to create valuable patents that can be capitalized. In easy-to-understand language, this book covers various aspects, including basic concepts of patent laws and rules, innovation protection, patenting, patents post-granting and patent licensing. With over 40 tables, 70 figures, nearly 100 cases and examples, and a comprehensive index table, it serves as a practical handbook for inventors and patent practitioners. This second edition incorporates the latest changes in the America Invents Act (AIA), with additional case studies and illustrations throughout the book. For inventors who want to file patents by themselves, this new edition provides guidelines and step-by-step instructions on preparing and filing a US provisional patent application, while avoiding the pitfalls that commonly occur in do-it-yourself patenting."--

This volume assembles papers commissioned by the National Research Council's Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP) to inform judgments about the significant institutional and policy changes in the patent system made over the past two decades. The chapters fall into three areas. The first four chapters consider the determinants and effects of changes in patent "quality." Quality refers to whether patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) meet the statutory standards of patentability, including novelty, nonobviousness, and utility. The fifth and sixth chapters consider the growth in patent litigation, which may itself be a function of changes in the quality of contested patents. The final three chapters explore controversies associated with the extension of patents into new domains of technology, including biomedicine, software, and business methods.