Patent Terms Glossary
USPTO
Definition:
United States Patent and Trademark Office, designation became effective April 3, 2000; a result of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999.
Opposition Proceeding
Definition:
A proceeding before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in which the plaintiff seeks to prevent the issuance of a registration of a mark.
Consisting Essentially Of
Definition:
A transitional phrase that limits the scope of a claim to the specified materials or steps and those that do not materially affect the basic and novel characteristics of the claimed invention.
Counterpart
Definition:
An application filed in a foreign patent office that is substantially similar to (like) the patent application filed with the USPTO and is based upon some or all of the same invention.
Trade Secret
Definition:
Information that companies keep secret to give them an advantage over their competitors.
Group Art Unit
Definition:
A working unit responsible for a cluster of related patent art. Staffed by one supervisory patent examiner (SPE) and a number of patent examiners who determine patentability on applications for a patent.
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There is a time limit on patent protection.
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. Note: Patents in force on June 8 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.
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