Patents

Protecting Your Ideas

Last year, our attorneys filed hundreds of U.S. and foreign patent applications for our clients and obtained more U.S. patents than any other IP law firm in Wisconsin. You may have other attorneys for your other legal needs, but patent law requires a focused expertise. Our extensive experience enables us to obtain patents that maximize your competitive edge. Perhaps that is why so many leading companies turn to us for protection.

What Is a Patent

  • A patent is a right granted by the federal government that permits a patent owner to prevent all others from exploiting its “invention” in the United States for a limited time.
  • The public policy behind the patent system is to encourage invention and innovation by rewarding inventors for disclosing and sharing their inventions with the public by giving the patent owner a period of exclusivity to exploit its invention.
  • Patent protection is available for inventions that are new, useful, and non-obvious.

How to obtain a patent

  • To obtain a patent, a detailed application must be filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), where it is subject to a rigorous examination process.
  • Prompt consultation with a patent attorney after developing an invention is essential because rights may be lost unless an application is filed in a timely manner and carefully shepherded through the USPTO.
  • Once issued, a patent protects a business’s competitive edge by preventing competitors from making, using, or selling the patented invention for a period of years, generally 20 years from the date the application was filed.

Related News

New Options Are Coming for European Patent Protection

Changes are coming in 2023 to the way that patents are obtained and enforced in Europe. Currently, inventions are protected in Europe on a country-by-country basis, with patent applications examined  either i) individually, by the intellectual property authority in each of the EU countries, or...

USPTO Institutes Prioritized Examination for Patent Applications

As of September 26, the America Invents Act now grants Prioritized Examination (PE) for those companies/inventors willing to pay an additional application petition fee. The new PE program places applications on a prioritized "fast track" toward final disposition. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark...

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