Finding Hidden Profits in Patents

Ask several people what they think is the greatest invention of the modern era and you are bound to get several different answers: the telephone, television, space flight, computers. It may be difficult to agree on what is the most significant breakthrough of our time. What is not in dispute however is that all great inventions start with an idea. And the best way to protect ideas so that both society and the inventor can reap the rewards of innovation is with a patent. Intellectual property attorney Irving Rappaport, formerly with the US patent office explains the nature of patents. "The patent is essentially a contract between the inventor and the government, whereby the government in exchange for the inventors disclosing and making public the invention will grant the inventor a limited right to exclude others for a period currently of 20 years from the filing date. The nature and use of patents has changed considerably in the last 30 -35 years, when I started in the patent office in 1962, a patent was primarily a defensive tool it was used by companies to give them freedom to go into various fields but generally was looked at strictly as a legal asset.