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U.S. Patent Law
Under United States law, a patent is a right granted to the inventor of a (1) process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, (2) that is new, useful, and non-obvious. A patent is the right to exclude others, for a limited time (usually, 20 years) from profiting of a patented technology without the consent of the patent-holder. Specifically, it is the right to exclude others from: making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing, inducing others to infringe, applying for an FDA approval, and/or offering a product specially adapted for practice of the patent. United States patent law is codified in Title 35 of the United States Code, and authorized by the U.S. Constitution, in Article One, section 8, clause 8, which states: Patent law is designed to encourage inventors to disclose their new technology to the world by offering the incentive of a limited-time monopoly on the technology. For U.S. utility patents, this limited-time term of patent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Law Of The United States
The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well as various civil liberties. The Constitution sets out the boundaries of federal law, which consists of Acts of Congress, treaties ratified by the Senate, regulations promulgated by the executive branch, and case law originating from the federal judiciary. The United States Code is the official compilation and codification of general and permanent federal statutory law. Federal law and treaties, so long as they are in accordance with the Constitution, preempt conflicting state and territorial laws in the 50 U.S. states and in the territories. However, the scope of federal preemption is limited because the scope of federal power is not universal. In the dual sovereign system of American federalism (actually tripartite because of the pre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Inventors Protection Act
The American Inventors Protection Act (AIPA) is a United States federal law enacted on November 29, 1999, as Public Law 106-113. In 2002, the Intellectual Property and High Technology Technical Amendments Act of 2002, Public Law 107-273, amended AIPA. AIPA contains significant changes to American Patent Law. AIPA added * An "earlier invention" defense for business method patents – 35 U.S.C. §273; * Publication of US patent applications for foreign published applications – 35 U.S.C. §122; * Patent term restoration for delays caused by the Patent and Trademark Office – 35 U.S.C. §154; * The Request for Continued Examination (RCE) patent prosecution procedure; and * Disclosure requirements for invention promotion firms. Political considerations Large corporations generally supported the bill. Independent inventors generally opposed the bill. See also *Patent Reform Act of 2005 References Further readingThe American Inventor’s Protection Act: A Legislative Histor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exhaustion Doctrine Under U
Fatigue describes a state of tiredness that does not resolve with rest or sleep. In general usage, fatigue is synonymous with extreme tiredness or exhaustion that normally follows prolonged physical or mental activity. When it does not resolve after rest or sleep, or occurs independently of physical or mental exertion, it may be a symptom of a medical condition that may become severe or progressive. Fatigue can be a feature of a mental disorder such as depression; may be associated with conditions of chronic pain such as fibromyalgia; it may also feature in conditions of chronic low-level inflammation, and be a disease-related symptom in many other conditions. Fatigue often has no known cause, and is recognised as being very complex in nature. Fatigability describes a susceptibility to fatigue. Physical fatigue results from muscle fatigue brought about by intense physical activity. Mental fatigue results from prolonged periods of cognitive activity which impairs cognitive abi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exhausted Combination Doctrine
The exhausted combination doctrine, also referred to as the doctrine of the ''Lincoln Engineering'' case, is the doctrine of U.S. patent law that when an inventor invents a new, unobvious device and seeks to patent not merely the new device but also the combination of the new device with a known, conventional device with which the new device cooperates in the conventional and predictable way in which devices of those types have previously cooperated, the combination is unpatentable as an "exhausted combination" or "old combination". The doctrine is also termed the doctrine of the ''Lincoln Engineering'' case because the United States Supreme Court explained the doctrine in its decision in ''Lincoln Engineering Co. v. Stewart-Warner Corp.'' The ''Lincoln Engineering'' decision In ''Lincoln Engineering'', the inventor invented a new and improved coupling device to attach a nozzle to a grease gun. The patent, however, claimed the whole combination of grease gun, nozzle, and coupling ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duty Of Disclosure
A duty (from "due" meaning "that which is owing"; fro, deu, did, past participle of ''devoir''; la, debere, debitum, whence "debt") is a commitment or expectation to perform some action in general or if certain circumstances arise. A duty may arise from a system of ethics or morality, especially in an honor culture. Many duties are created by law, sometimes including a codified punishment or liability for non-performance. Performing one's duty may require some sacrifice of self-interest. Cicero, an early Roman philosopher who discusses duty in his work “On Duty", suggests that duties can come from four different sources: # as a result of being a human # as a result of one's particular place in life (one's family, one's country, one's job) # as a result of one's character # as a result of one's own moral expectations for oneself The specific duties imposed by law or culture vary considerably, depending on jurisdiction, religion, and social normalities. Civic duty Duty is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duty Of Candor
In UK public law, the duty of candour is the duty imposed on a public authority 'not to seek to win litigation at all costs but to assist the court in reaching the correct result and thereby to improve standards in public administration'. Lord Donaldson MR in ''R v Lancashire County Council ex p. Huddleston'' stated that public servants should be willing 'to explain fully what has occurred and why'. There is also a contractual duty of candour imposed on all NHS and non-NHS providers of services to NHS patients in the UK to 'provide to the service user and any other relevant person all necessary support and all relevant information' in the event that a 'reportable patient safety incident' occurs. A 'reportable patient safety incident' is one which could have or did result in moderate or severe harm or death. Campaigner Will Powell led a campaign for NHS managers and doctors to have a formal 'duty of candour' when dealing with complaints about negligent or poor standards of car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doctrine Of Repair And Reconstruction
The doctrine of repair and reconstruction in United States patent law distinguishes between permissible repair of a patented article, which the right of an owner of property to preserve its utility and operability guarantees, and impermissible reconstruction of a patented article, which is patent infringement. The doctrine is explained in '' Aro Mfg. Co. v. Convertible Top Replacement Co.'' The ''Aro'' case states the rule in these terms: The decisions of this Court require the conclusion that reconstruction of a patented entity, unpatented elements, is limited to such a true reconstruction of the entity as to "in fact make a new article," after the entity, viewed as a whole, has become spent. In order to call the monopoly, conferred by the patent grant, into play for a second time, it must, indeed, be a second creation of the patented entity. …Mere replacement of individual unpatented parts, one at a time, whether of the same part repeatedly or different parts successively, is n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doctrine Of Inherency
In United States patent law, the doctrine of inherency holds that, under certain circumstances, prior art may be relied upon not only for what it expressly teaches, but also for what is inherent therein, i.e., what necessarily flows from the express teachings. For a patent claim to be valid, its subject-matter must be novel and non-obvious. The claim is anticipated (i.e. will fail because its subject-matter is not novel) if a single prior art reference, either expressly or inherently, discloses every feature of the claimed invention. The concept of inherency is predicated on the idea that a claim should not pass the test of anticipation merely because a feature of it is undisclosed or unrecognized in the prior art reference. A prior art source may thus still anticipate if an apparently missing element of the claim is inherent in that prior art source. Procedurally, to rely on the doctrine of inherency, one must provide a basis in fact and/or technical reasoning supporting a determi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Design Patent
In the United States, a design patent is a form of legal protection granted to the ornamental design of an article of manufacture. Design patents are a type of industrial design right. Ornamental designs of jewelry, furniture, beverage containers (Fig. 1) and computer icons are examples of objects that are covered by design patents. A similar intellectual property right, a registered design, can be obtained in other countries. In Kenya, Japan, South Korea and Hungary, industrial designs are registered after performing an official novelty search. In the countries of the European Community, one needs to only pay an official fee and meet other formal requirements for registration (e.g. Community design at EUIPO, Germany, France, Spain). For the member states of WIPO, cover is afforded by registration at WIPO and examination by the designated member states in accordance with the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement. Protections A US design patent covers the ornamental design ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Assignor Estoppel
The doctrine of assignor estoppel is a doctrine of United States patent law barring a patent's seller (assignor) from attacking the patent's validity in subsequent patent infringement litigation. The doctrine is based on the doctrine of legal estoppel, which prohibits a grantor (typically, of real property) from challenging the validity of his/her/its grant. In ''Diamond Scientific Co. v. Ambico, Inc.'', the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit distinguished the policies applicable to assignor estoppel from those applicable to licensee estoppel. It therefore held that the doctrine of '' Lear, Inc. v. Adkins'', which applies to licenses and holds that public policy requires that licensees not be muzzled from challenging the validity of possibly spurious patents, does not apply to assignments. The UK counterpart to this doctrine is the doctrine of non-derogation from grants. Under this doctrine, as explained in ''British Leyland Motor Corp. v. Armstrong Patents C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
All Elements Test
The all elements rule or all limitations rule (often written with a hyphen after "all") is a legal test used in US patent law to determine whether a given reference shows that a patent claim lacks the novelty required to be valid. The rule is also applicable to an obviousness analysis.See ''Beckson Marine, Inc. v. NFM, Inc.'', 292 F.3d 718, 727 (Fed. Cir. 2002) (holding that for claimed subject matter to be obvious either the prior art references must expressly reach each claim limitation exactly or else the record must disclose a reason for a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the prior art teachings to obtain the claimed invention). Under the rule, a single reference (for anticipation) or the combination of references relied upon, plus the ordinary knowledge of persons skilled in the art (for obviousness), must provide each claimed element. For anticipation, and under certain circumstances for obviousness, the doctrine of inherency may be relied on to meet this test. See ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
