A patent confers the right to use, exploit and commercialize the invention exclusively in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention’s technical details, thus contributing to the dissemination of knowledge and fostering further innovation. This exclusive right is usually for a period of 20 years from the filing date of the patent application.

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While the patent owner gains exclusive rights, society benefits from early access to new technological information.

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Legal Framework

Legislature enacts patent laws in order to promote scientific research, product innovation, industrial progress, commercial enterprise, technical advancement, human prosperity and societal development. The object of any patent law is to reward genuine inventions by giving them limited monopoly within the territory governed by the legislating state.

The right which the law accords is to prevent all others— not just imitators, but even independent devisers of either a very similar or even the exact same idea— from using the invention for the duration of the patent’s validity. Therefore, invention patents are an intangible property type that is most valuable for inventors, and, potentially most dangerous for competitors.

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In general, upon the grant of a patent for an invention, several property rights are conferred upon the inventor(s). These rights are legal entitlements that constitute an intellectual asset and define ownership and control over the patented invention.

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Rights, Privileges and Entitlements

A patent entitles the owner of the invention a bundle of rights and privileges. This bouquet of legal rights includes the:

1. right to physical or virtual access and control over the property and its possession;
2. right to use, utilize and enjoy the property;
3. right to enhance, improve or re-develop the property;
4. right to sell, gift, assign, release, relinquish, transfer or otherwise dispose of the property;
5. right to earn income and profit from the property by lending, renting, leasing, licensing or deriving royalty therefrom;
6. right to exclude others and prevent unauthorized persons from accessing or using the property; and,
7. right to sue others for others infringement of the property rights.

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Thus, the owner(s) of patented inventions can assert the conferred rights to prevent competitors from unlawfully or unjustly profiting, benefiting or enriching themselves therefrom. Compensatory and punitive damages, besides injunctive reliefs, can be sought for any infringement of patent rights. The patent grant erects an artificial entry barrier for competitors and prevents them from using, imitating or replicating the invention.

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At BLAZE VENTURES, we have elaborate processes and qualified professionals for assisting  innovators and enterprises create sustainable patent rights over their ideas, innovations and inventions.