Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - January/February 2014 - (Page 16)

What Young Inventors Need to Know about Patents SO YOU'VE WORKED ON A COOL SCIENCE PROJECT and made a fantastic breakthrough. Now you might start to wonder if you should patent your invention. The answer is not a simple yes or no. Before you go online to print out a patent application, there are a few things you should know about patents. 16 imagine THINKSTOCK by Suzanne P. Nguyen Going Public A patent is a property right that allows the owner to prevent others from using, making, or selling an invention for a limited amount of time, typically 20 years. In exchange for getting patent rights to your invention, you allow others to study your invention, try it out (without commercializing it), and think of improvements. Patent owners' rights are detailed in carefully worded "claims" that describe in technical terms the invention being protected. The invention must be described well enough in the patent application that others would be able to reproduce the invention based on that description. For example, in applying for a patent for a time machine, you'd have to detail all the components and probably submit some drawings so other people could understand your invention. The detailed description of the invention in the patent application is included in the granted patent, which is published. This means that if you want to keep an invention secret, you can't also get a patent. Some inventions-such as those that can't easily be reverse engineered, or inventions relating to processes that would be carried out in secure, private manufacturing facilities-might be better protected as secrets rather than through patents. Post-it notes, for example, use a very special formulation of adhesive, which is protected as a trade secret. New, Nonobvious, and Useful In the United States, patents are given for inventions such as a "useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof." For example, a more efficient method of filtering drinking water could be patentable, as could the filtering device itself. A new chemical mixture for removing rust could be patentable. New uses of known things are also patentable. A discovery-such as deducing a physical law or gaining an understanding of the function of a gene-is not patentable by itself, no matter how important it is. Jan/Feb 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - January/February 2014

Big Picture
In My Own Words
Legal Discovery
Order in the Court
Think, Debate, Change the World
Voice of the Students
What Young Inventors Need to Know about Patents
A Practice and a Passion
The Science of Crime Detection
The Medical Examiner Is In
Selected Opportunities and Resources
Wild in the City
Off the Shelf
Word Wise
Exploring Career Options
One Step Ahead
Planning Ahead for College
Students Review
Creative Minds Imagine
Mark Your Calendar
Knossos Games

Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - January/February 2014