Competitive and Technical Intelligence ToolBox

For applications filed on or after June 8, 1995, utility and plant patents are granted for a term which begins with the date of the grant and usually ends 20 years from the date you first applied for the patent subject to the payment of appropriate maintenance fees. Design patents last 14 years from the date you are granted the patent. No maintenance fees are required for design patents. Note: Patents in force on June 8, 1995 and patents issued thereafter on applications filed prior to June 8, 1995 automatically have a term that is the greater of the twenty year term discussed above or seventeen years from the patent grant. Source: http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/patents.jsp

Fees vary depending on the type of patent application you submit. Fees may also vary according to the way you "claim" your invention. More information on filing fees and the number and type of claims. There are three basic fees for utility patents: The filing fee, which is non-refundable whether or not a patent is granted. (This is the cost to have your invention "examined" by the US Patent and Trademark Office - remember, you may or may not get a patent!) The issue fee (you pay this only if your application is allowed) Maintenance fees (paid at 3 1/2, 7 1/2, and 11 1/2 years after your patent is granted - these fees "maintain" your legal protection). Additional fees may be required. Typical fees are as follows (these are only intended to ...

The United States Publication ( US20090242869 ) relates to nanowires comprising a built-in super lattice/quantum well structure. Semiconductor nanowires are useful in components for micro- and nanoscale devices due to their novel electrical and optical properties

Google is truly a innovative company. The company's recently published patent US20090252383 is imaging. The invention relate to integrating automatic face recognition into organization of digital image collections. Facial images are detected in images from a collection of digital images. The detected facial images are grouped into similarity groups based on a facial recognition template computed for each of the detected facial images. The detected facial images are displayed to the user in similarity groups, and user input is received to confirm or reject individual facial images in each of the displayed similarity groups. Each of the similarity groups are updated based on the received user input, and the updated similarity groups are stored in a facial image database.

Suven Life Sciences, a Hyderabad-based biopharmaceutical company specialising in central nervous system (CNS) diseases, got patent for the candidate (SUVN-502), achieved through internal discovery efforts of Suven, has been validated in all the nine member countries of Eurasia (including Russia) and 37 member countries of Europe including major markets like Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, France, UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Finland Read More

Good article for individual involved in nanotechnology research by  Michael Berger The article lists nine key considerations and strategies that bionanotechnology inventors must follow in order to adequately protect an invention even before a patent application is drafted or filed.  Read more : http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=7238.php