Plant patents protect asexually reproducible plants. Utility patents, the most common type of patent, are often referred to simply as patents. Utility patents provide protection for useful inventions, which may be processes, machines, articles of manufacture, or compositions of matter. A patent permits a patentee to exclude others from making, selling, or using the patented invention and from importing the patented invention or an article made by a patented process into the United States. Unlike copyrights, others may be excluded from practicing a patented invention whether or not they copied the invention from the patentee.
Independent invention is no defense to patent infringement.
It is important to realize that a patent by itself does not permit the patentee to do anything with the invention. Patent rights are, for the most part, exclusionary and not permissive rights. This is similar to the rights enjoyed by the owner of other types of property, such as personal property. The owner of a car has the right to exclude others from using the car. However, the car owner does not have the right to use the car in ways that infringe upon the rights of others.