Patent is a property right that is granted by the government that provides exclusive rights for an invention. Through patent, other people are prohibited from using same invention for their benefit. Getting patent is a not an easy affair and when international treaties are involved, it becomes difficult. There are basically three types of patents that are provided by USPTO or United States Patent and Trademark Office. There are design patents, utility patents and plant patents. Each of these patents is provided for a fixed duration, which is called as effective length of patent. Application, fee and submission requirements of each of these patents are different.

Effective Length Of Different Types Of Patents

Design patents are issued for new, original and ornament designs. Thus, this type of patent deals with manufactured items. Effective length of this type of patent is 14 years from the date of grant of patent. In the effective period, other people are barred from making or using the patented design. It should be understood that these patents are not subjected to maintenance fee. It is often very difficult to differentiate between design and utility patents, as function as well as design overlap very often. Since utility patent attracts maintenance fee, great confusion may be caused.

Utility patent is also called as patent for invention and provides protection to the owners of new as well as useful processes. This type of patent can be used for machines or manufacturing methods or composition of matter. If there are any new or useful improvements made to the existing things, these are also covered under utility patent. The effective length of utility patent is 20 years from the date of filing and not from the date when the patent was granted. Thus, in terms of effective length, utility patent is different from design patent. About 90% of the patents issued by USPTO are utility patents. There are basically two types of utility patents.

These are provisional and non-provisional utility patents. Application and maintenance fee of provisional utility patent is lower than those of non-provisional patent. It is to be understood that permanent protection is not provided to provisional utility patent without subsequent filing of non-provisional patent. Time period associated with this filing is 18 months. For starting the effective length of utility patent earlier, these patents are generally filed online.Like utility patent, effective length of plant patent is also 20 years from the date of filing of application. Plant patent is issued to an inventor who has produced a new variety of plant, which is not found in uncultivated state and which is not a tuber propagated plant. This type of patent can be issued to heirs or assigns of inventor also.

For getting this patent, it is necessary that plant has been produced asexually.Apart from above, reissue patents are also issued by USPTO. These patents are awarded for correcting errors contained in three types of patents. The effective length of this patent is as same as original patent that was previously issued.Some people also refer SIR or statutory invention registration as patent, which is not correct. There is no effective length of SIR.

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