Utility Patents
The United States Constitution grants Congress the power “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” Herein lies the source of the patent grant – the exclusive right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement of these for 20 years after the patent application is filed. This definition basically includes “anything under the sun that is made by man.” However, abstract ideas, mathematical formulas, physical phenomena, and laws of nature are not patentable.
Our licensed patent attorneys are equipped to give you practical and common sense answers to your technical and legal questions. We will advise you from concept through the prosecution of your application at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, to manufacturing, selling and or licensing your patented product to others, and protecting it from infringement.
Design Patents
Congress added design patents to the patent statute in the 19th century. A design patent protects a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture. The design patent grants the patent owner the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing an article of manufacture of similar design for 14 years from the date the patent is granted. A product may be protected by a design patent alone, or in combination with a utility patent.
A design patent in the US can be granted for just about any product–The Statue of Liberty, the Stealth Bomber, the Coka-Cola bottle, potato chip, sneakers, tire treads . . . you get the idea. The design can be applied to the unique shape of a surface of the article, comprise the product’s shape or configuration, or be a combination of the two. The design cannot, however, be protected by a design patent in the US if it is functional. The McHattie Law Firm looks forward to discussing your design with you before embarking on expensive product design and development.
Our patent agents can research and file your design patent and shepherd it through the patent prosecution process at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, as well as defend your patent against infringing products. Products that are eligible for design patent protection might also qualify for additional layers of copyright and/or trademark protection. We are happy to help you determine the most efficient and effective approach to protecting your commercial designs.
Intellectual Property
The McHattie Law Firm is uniquely equipped to deal with modern businesses’ most valuable asset—its intellectual property—and to manage it with a strategic legal approach in the US.
From creation to licensing to sale, we stand ready, willing and able to serve your needs, developing strategies for your opportunities and solutions to your problems. We have the experience to help you obtain your US and global IP protection for an invention, the expression of an original idea, a trademark, or software efficiently and effectively, and to thereafter help you earn a return and profit from that investment.