A patent gives the owner the exclusive right to prevent other people using the invention or to let other people use the invention under licence. It gives the right to take legal action against anyone who uses the invention without permission and to claim damages from them. A patent can last for a maximum of 20 years. In general, separate applications must be filed in the countries in which protection is sought for international protection, although there are a number of ways of cutting down the expense. To be patentable, an invention must fulfil three criteria.
Most countries have public policy exclusions to deprive certain inventions of protection.
The important point is that the layperson should never make a judgement as to whether a particular invention is patentable. This is a question on which the professional advice of a patent attorney should be sought. As with any commercial tool, a patent should be used only when the circumstances suggest that it would be commercially useful. A substantial number of inventions are not new and have been invented by someone else, somewhere else. If it is, it may well be inventive.