Patent laws and legislation United States

Under United States law, a patent is a right granted to the inventor of a (1) process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, (2) that is new, useful, and non-obvious. A patent is the right to exclude others, for a limited time (usually, 20 years) from unlawful profiting from a patented technology without the written consent of the patent holder or procedures established by law. Specifically, it is the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing, inducing others to infringe by applying for FDA approval, and/or offering a product specially adapted for practice of the patent.