Knowra Patent Patent A patent is a government-granted, time-limited exclusive right to an invention in exchange for public disclosure. Its claims define the legal boundaries of that right.
Patent claim : A statement in a patent that defines the subject matter for which legal protection is sought. Claims set the boundaries of the exclusive right granted by a patent.
Intellectual property : A body of legal rights governing creations of the mind, including inventions, works, and marks. Patents are one form of intellectual property, distinct from rights in expression or branding.
Venetian Patent Statute of 1474 : A Venetian law that established protections for certain new and ingenious devices brought into the republic. It is an early statutory example of granting time-limited rights for inventions.
Copyright : A legal right protecting original works of expression, such as books, music, and software code. Copyright protects expression, while patents can protect qualifying functional inventions.
Novelty : The requirement that an invention be new relative to publicly available prior art. An invention that is not novel generally cannot receive a patent.
Invention : A new device, method, or process devised to solve a problem or achieve a result. A patent protects a qualifying invention rather than the abstract idea alone.
Statute of Monopolies : A 1624 English law that restricted royal monopolies while preserving limited privileges for new inventions. It helped shape the legal distinction between invention patents and arbitrary monopolies.
Trade secret : Confidential business information that gains value from not being generally known and is protected against certain misappropriation. Trade secrets preserve secrecy instead of exchanging disclosure for a time-limited exclusive right.
Inventive step and non-obviousness : Legal standards requiring an invention to be more than an obvious development of existing knowledge. These standards screen out inventions that skilled practitioners could readily derive from prior art.
Patent specification : The written description of an invention in a patent application, typically including its claims and technical disclosure. The specification explains the invention and supports the scope sought in its claims.
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