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Patents are legal instruments intended for controlling technology-driven socio-economic progress and providing a general benefit for the society as a whole. Patents have proven to provide regulative measures which can foster fair market development. Subject to market conditions patents may provide incentives that can foster or under certain circumstances hinder innovation progress. A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a government to an inventor or applicant for a limited amount of time (normally maximum 20 years from the filing date, depending on extension). ... The history of patents and patent laws is generally considered to have started in Italy with a Venetian Statute of 1474. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with patent application. ... Within the context of a national or multilateral body of law, an invention is patentable or, in other words, it satisfies the patentability requirements if it meets the legal conditions to be granted a patent. ... In law, a patent infringement occurs when the subject-matter claimed in a patent has been utilized by someone other than the rightholder, without the owners approval or in disagreement with the terms of use given by the owner. ... It has been suggested that Licensing (strategic alliance) be merged into this article or section. ... European patent law covers a wide range of legislations including national patent laws, the Strasbourg Convention of 1963, the European Patent Convention of 1973, and a number of European Union directives and regulations. ... Japanese patent law is referred to as Tokkyo hou in Japanese. ... The United States patent law is a first-to-invent patent legal framework in contrast to all other national patent laws. ... Law (from the Old Norse lagu) in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, intended to provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments of/for those who do... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... ...

Macroeconomic perspective

The patent system has an impact on the economy as a whole. In the economy at large, in the absence of any government intervention or protection, too little human capital (skills) is allocated toward research and development of new technologies and new products. This is primarily because the benefits of new research are spread out over the entire economy, and the one who puts in the money, time, and effort gets only a very small part of the benefit. In this case, knowledge is called nonexcludable, because there is no way to prevent everyone from using it. A patent, therefore, helps the problem by making knowledge partially excludable. It helps guarantee that the innovator of the new technology will receive a larger share of the benefit. This provides the incentive for firms and scientists to do more research and develop more products. For this reason, patents are considered a critical institution in the creation of long-run economic growth. The phrase research and development (also R and D or R&D) has a special commercial significance apart from its conventional coupling of research and technological development. ...

Microeconomic perspective

Many factors should be considered when deciding whether it is worth obtaining a patent on an invention. Obtaining, maintaining or enforcing the rights of a patent can be for example more expensive or limiting than the benefits granted by the temporary monopoly. Nevertheless, products or services can be very complex and consequently can be implemented and enabled by utilizing various different technologies which can render a patent irrelevant. Generally, sustainable optimally implemented products and services that defy evolutionary improvement are extremely rare. invention: something that you invent In general terms, an invention is an object, process or technique which displays an element of novelty. ... In economics, a monopoly (from the Greek monos, one + polein, to sell) is defined as a persistent market situation where there is only one provider of a kind of product or service. ...

The real strength of patents arises when one entity owns a well designed patent portfolio which can cover important aspects of the product or service that should be secured. Patent portfolios can greatly reduce the ability of others to develop and offer similar products or services.

Alternatively, inventions can be gifted to the general public as a resource that is free to use by everyone without limitations. This may help achieving a business goal by triggering synergetic effects which can help you accelerate the development process of your product or service.

See also

• Business method patent
• Patentability
• Software patent debate
• Sufficiency of disclosure