### written language | document:

Patent
* allow inventors to exclude others from making, using, or selling the invention.
* also promote the dissemination of information.
* are a form of intellectual property
  - personal property
  - regulation
  - long-established means of encouraging innovation
  - social contract between inventors and society, meant to benefit society as a whole
  - an attempt to prevent dominant players from controlling markets permanently
  - concerned with how something is done
  - documents granting ownership rights to some previously unpantented property
  - first-title deeds transferring land from the government to private individuals
  - generally the most relevant form of intellectual property to research scientists
  - important as an incentive for the private producers of knowledge
* are legal documents granting ownership rights to an invention
  - rights to invention
  - protecting the rights of inventors
  - means to protect inventions
  - part of a whole process of creating value
  - personal property within the broader category referred to as intellectual property
* are products of federal statute, with roots in the Constitution
  - the legal system
* are the equivalent of copyrights for physical machines
  - friends of both inventors and the public
  - incentive businesses have to invest lots of money in research and development
  - initial transfer of land from government to private hands
* are the most common form of intellectual property
  - important form of publication for industrial research
  - to protect ownership of processes or technologies
* attempt to promote commercial risk, while assuring the benefit of another's work to society.
* can stifle creativity and scientific research.
* cover methods.
* describe the boundaries of inventions as deeds describe the boundaries of real property.
* generally cover inventions, meaning technology.
* give companies the right to determine who gets access to genes and at what price.
* govern use.
* have the purpose of protecting one's inventions.
* is papers
  - the right to make, use or sell a particular application of an idea
* measure the creativity and technical innovation of an organization.
* medical term that means open.
* protect content and copyrights protect form.
* protect ideas which can be physically expressed in a machine, design, or process
  - have been reduced to practice
  - inventions - whether part of a product, or a complete product
* protect inventions and improvements to existing inventions
  - ornamental designs
  - inventions, methods or processes that are unique, non-obvious and new
  - technological inventions
* protect the rights of individuals who make discoveries or inventions
  - inventors to their inventions
  - useful processes, machines, and compositions of matter
* provide the right to exclude others from making, using and selling an invention.
* relate to applications.
* traditionally protect utilitarian items such as machinery or other kinds of hardware.
* usually refer to products or processes that contain new functional or technical aspects.
+ Patent, Parts of a patent: Intellectual property law :: Technology
  * Patents are usually very long. They include a number of smaller parts. A patent usually includes a section that briefly describes the idea called the abstract.

### written language | document | patent:

Design patent
* apply to the aesthetic or ornamental appearance of products.
* cover the ornamental appearance of articles of manufacture or machines.
* refer to any new ornamental design for an item.

Plant patent
* are the only legal means of protecting a proprietary plant.
* cover newly invented, discovered, or asexually reproduced plants.
* protect asexually reproducible plants
  - new varieties of asexually reproducing plants
  - plants reproduced by methods other than seeds