Patent Basics
The administrative agency in charge of granting patents is called the United States Patent and Trademark office. This is typically abbreviated as USPTO, PTO, or simply patent office. The USPTO will examine all patent applications to ensure compliance with certain requirements. The patent office will usually examine patent applications on a first come first served basis.
If the patent office rejects or objects to the patent it will set forth the inadequacies of the patent application. One usually has three months to respond to a patent office action. This time can be extended up to a total of six months. During this time the applicant can argue with the office, in order to show that the rejection was factually or legally improper. This back-and-forth will continue until the patent office allows the application or issues final office action at which point the applicant must either appeal the rejected claims, request continued examination, or abandon the application.
In the year 1787, at the Constitutional Convention, there was a proposal to incorporate as a new federal power the right to secure, for a limited time, patents and copyrights. The measure was adopted as follows:
The Congress shall have power … to promote the progress of … useful arts, by securing for limited times to … inventors the exclusive right to their … discoveries.
U.S. Constitution, Art. 1, Sec. 8, cl. 8.
Therefore, the patent power is a Constitutional power with no interstate limitation.
The present Patent Act was enacted in 1952, and is codified in Title 35 of the United States Code (U.S.C.). The Patent Act requires that someone who wishes to obtain a patent demonstrate that (s)he has developed a new, useful, and nonobvious process or product. 35 U.S.C. 101. The demonstration is made with a patent application.