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This is a list of legal terms relating to patents and patent law.A patent is not a right to practice or use the invention claimed therein, but a territorial right to exclude others from commercially exploiting the invention, granted to an inventor or their successor in rights in exchange to a public disclosure of the invention.
For example, many inventions are improvements of prior inventions that may still be covered by someone else's patent. [1] If an inventor obtains a patent on improvements to an existing invention which is still under patent, they can only legally use the improved invention if the patent holder of the original invention gives permission, which ...
Alexander Graham Bell (/ ˈ ɡ r eɪ. ə m /, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) [4] was a Scottish-born [N 1] Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone.
Letters patent (plural form for singular and plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title or status to a person or corporation.
In patent law, an inventor is the person, or persons in United States patent law, who contribute to the claims of a patentable invention. In some patent law frameworks, however, such as in the European Patent Convention (EPC) and its case law , no explicit, accurate definition of who exactly is an inventor is provided.
The clause was interpreted as two distinct powers: the power to secure for limited times to authors the exclusive right to their writings is the basis for U.S. copyright law, and the power to secure for limited times to inventors the exclusive rights to their discoveries is the basis for U.S. patent law.
The 100 known most prolific inventors based on worldwide utility patents are shown in the following table. While in many cases this is the number of utility patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, it may include utility patents granted by other countries, as noted by the source references for an inventor.
Actual use of the invention was deemed adequate disclosure to the public. [13] The English patent system evolved from its early medieval origins into the first modern patent system that recognised intellectual property in order to stimulate invention; this was the crucial legal foundation upon which the Industrial Revolution could emerge and ...