FAQs Patent Questions

Question:What is a patent?

Answer:
A patent is a property right granted by the Government of the United States of America to an inventor “to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States” for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted.

Question:What is intellectual property?

Answer:
The term intellectual property refers to creations of the mind - creative works or ideas embodied in a form that can be shared or can enable others to recreate, emulate, or manufacture them. There are four ways to protect intellectual property - patents, trademarks, copyrights or trade secrets.

Question:How do I obtain the status of a patent?

Answer:
The Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system permits third parties to obtain information about applications that have been published pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 122(b) and issued patents, such as the status of maintenance fee payments and whether or not a reissue application or reexamination request has been filed. PAIR can be accessed on the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) web site at http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair.

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