Deck 17: Foundations of Patent Law

Question 1

An abstract idea cannot be patented.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

How do patents promote the public good?

Answer 2

Patent protection incentivizes inventors. Inventors fully disclose their inventions (which introduce new products and technologies) in return for which they receive an exclusive period of time to exploit their inventions. After the period of protection for the patent expires, the fully disclosed patent is in the public domain and anyone can use or sell it.

Question 3

The term of protection for utility, design, and plant patents is the same.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Substitution of one material for another in an invention or mere changes in size are ordinarily not patentable because they are obvious.

Question 5

Generally, all the information available to the public in any form about an invention (printed publications, patent applications, patents, information on the Internet, and so forth) is called ______.

Question 6

Ideas are patentable.

Question 7

What is a patent?

Question 8

The usefulness required for an invention in order to be patented is either present or future usefulness.

Question 9

Under patent law, inventors can enjoin the making, using, or selling or importing of an infringing invention even if it was independently created and does not copy the patented invention.

Question 10

Patent law is federal in nature and is governed by federal statutes.

Question 11

Processes are patentable.

Question 12

Identify the three types of patents.

Question 13

An applicant for a patent may disclose his or her invention and still file an application for it if the application is filed within ______ of the disclosure. This period is called the ______.

Question 14

If an item is entirely functional and has no ornamental or decorative aspect, it cannot be the subject of a design patent.

Question 15

A mathematical principle can be patented so long as it can be implemented on a computer.

Question 16

What is the most significant change to patent law brought about under the America Invents Act?

Question 17

What are the three requirements for patentability of an invention for a utility patent?

Question 18

Naturally occurring substances cannot be patented.

Question 19

Patents are similar to trademarks and copyrights in that they arise from use or creation and need not be registered or applied for with any government agency to be valid.

Question 20

Any public use anywhere in the world prior to the application date for a patent will preclude the granting of a patent (unless the disclosure was made by the inventor or one who derived the subject matter from the inventor).

Question 21

The ______ Act promotes patent-like protection for drugs for rare diseases even if the drug cannot be patented, which protection is intended to encourage research and treatment for such rare diseases.

Question 22

Some factors considered in determining obviousness include the commercial success of the invention, long-felt need for the invention and failure of others, commercial acquiescence of others, and copying of the invention by others. These factors enumerated in the Graham v. John Deere Co. case are referred to as ______.

Question 23

Is DNA patentable? Discuss.

Question 24

What does it mean to say that an invention is nonobvious-nonobvious to whom?

Question 25

Why does the commercial success of an invention tend to show patentability?

Question 26

If the USPTO rejects a patent application on the basis of double patenting, inventors often respond by inserting a ______ into their applications, agreeing that the term of protection for the second invention will terminate upon expiration of the patent for the first invention.

Question 27

What does it mean to say that a plant being patented must be "asexually reproduced"?