Patents - What are they?
The first patent was granted by Henry VI of England in 1449 to a Flemish man on the manufacture of stained glass (destined for Eton College). This was the start of a long tradition by the English Crown of the granting of “letters patent” (meaning ‘open letter’, as opposed to a letter under seal) which granted “monopolies” to favoured persons (or people who were prepared to pay for them). Because of the lack of checks and balances, over time this became an unacceptable practice and reforms started to take place to create the patent system that we know today.
The rights granted by patent registration are relatively extensive - most commercial uses of the patent would be given exclusively to the owner and infringement would most likely be found against a defendant, whether or not he actually copied from the patented invention. The justifications for such rights are often couched in terms of natural rights of inventors to the products of his intellectual creation, the notion of justice, and public interest in the disclosure of technical and scientific information which would otherwise remain secret. It is important to understand the rationale of the system in order to use the patent registration process to implement and enforce these policy goals.
Although there are international efforts to harmonise patent laws, the grant of patents remain, largely, a matter of national patent offices. In general, an invention must fulfill the following criteria before it is granted protection for a period of 20 years: -
- It consists of subject matter that is patentable under the laws of the particular country;
- It is new when compared to prior art i.e. existing knowledge in the field;
- It involves an inventive step; and
- It is of practical use or applicability.
In most jurisdictions, there is also a list of invention categories specifically excluded from patentability. These usually consist of abstract and non-technical subject matters such as discoveries, scientific theories, mathematical methods and methods for medical treatment. Some laws also express the disapproval of using the patent system to protect subject matters such as plant or animal varieties and computer programmes, both of which are felt to be, by some, to be more appropriately be dealt with under a sui generis regime and copyright law respectively.
