What Can Be Protected under Patent Law
Three broad categories of inventions can be protected by patents: inventions for useful items are protected as utility patents, inventions for designs are protected as design patents, and new varieties of asexually produced plants are protected as plant patents.
Utility Patents
Utility patents are by far the most common type of patent and cover what we generally think of as inventions, such as the cotton gin, the automobile, the airplane, and the computer. The category of utility patents is quite broad, however, and also covers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof. These classes taken together include practically everything that ...
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