What are the benefits of patent protection?
Patents provide the strongest form of intellectual property protection. The owner of a U.S. patent may preclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell and importing the patented subject matter in the U.S. during the term of the patent, generally 20 years from the effective filing date of the U.S. patent application. Additionally, patents are presumed valid and can only be nullified with clear and convincing evidence that some condition or requirement for obtaining a patent has not been met, which is a difficult burden.
