What rights are conferred by a utility patent?
A utility patent grants the patent owner the right, in the case of a product patent, to prevent others from making, using, selling and importing products that includes the invention and, in the case of a process patent, the right to prevent others from using a process and to import products which were made by the patented process. Owning a patent does not mean the owner can make a patented product or use the process covered by the patent because there may exist earlier patents that would be infringed by such activities, for example, if it is necessary for the newly patented invention to include features of the existing product, which are covered by an earlier patent. A “right to use” search should be conducted prior to investing significant capital to bring a product or process to market.
