2 Policy Behind Patent Laws

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Congress created the patent system under a constitutional mandate, stating that such a system can be enacted “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.” This promotion of growth is furthered through enacting patent laws designed to provide motivation for citizens to engage in activities towards this end. Patent laws grant a limited monopoly to an inventor for a limited term in exchange for full disclosure of the invention to the public. The Supreme Court has stated that this trade between the United States and the inventor is intended to serve three basic public policy considerations: 1) encouraging invention, 2) fully disclosing inventions to the public for future use (after the patent has expired), and 3) ensuring that knowledge in the public domain remains there.

1. Incentive to Invent

Invention of new technologies is a key necessity for the expansion of the knowledge available for public use. As such, it is the policy of patent laws to serve as an incentive to the inventor to create new inventions. A prime motivation to invent under the patent laws is a simple will to create an invention, patent it, and subsequently reap the financial benefits of being the exclusive agent of the product.

Technological developments may also be furthered by the knowledge that discovery and patenting of an invention can both preclude patenting of that invention by a competitor and serve as an invaluable bargaining tool during corporate negotiations. Disclosures of new technology (in accordance with procedures to gain patent protection) can serve as the basis for new innovation by subsequent inventors. New variants of products are created as parties attempt to invent around issued patents and obtain protection of their own.

Lastly, as the cost of developing new technology often runs to exorbitant sums, some economists theorize that public invention would decline considerably without governmental proprietary protection for new inventions. Such a decline would work against the public policy of furthering new technologies.

2. Incentive to Fully Disclose

For the public to benefit from the inventions of others, the inventor must have a reason to fully divulge their findings to the public. Patent law provides that to obtain the 20-year limited monopoly offered by statute an inventor must disclose to the public, in “full, clear, [and] concise” terminology, ample information to allow one of ordinary skill in the art to “make and use” the invention to be patented. Widespread dissemination of the disclosed material is ensured by publication of patent applications eighteen months after the earliest claimed filing date and subsequently by public access to issued patents online.

The USPTO’s policy of ensuring full disclosure of a patented invention is further shown through the requirement that a patent applicant disclose preferred embodiments for practicing the claimed invention. Federal courts have recognized that “The best mode requirement creates a statutory bargained-for-exchange by which a patentee obtains the right to exclude others from practicing the claimed invention for a certain time period, and the public receives knowledge of the preferred embodiments for practicing the claimed invention.” Such a requirement removes the temptation that a patent applicant might feel to obtain a patent by disclosing information sufficient to obtain patent protection, while retaining the best method of practicing an invention for the patent applicant’s exclusive use. Failure to disclose the best mode for practicing a patented invention could lead to a finding of invalidity of the patent.

Patent statutes also provide encouragement not to maintain trade secrets, which work against the public policy of seeking full disclosure of new inventions. Courts have interpreted 35 U.S.C. § 102 as denying prior inventor status to parties who maintain a new technology as a trade secret. Such holdings allow subsequent parties to independently discover a technology, obtain a patent on it, and exclude the previous inventor who held the invention as a trade secret from using the invention.

3. Incentive to Keep Ideas in the Public Domain

Patent law policy seeks to protect the public’s right to access inventions already disclosed within the public domain. Therefore, patent statutes should attempt to ensure that once a technology has entered into the public domain the technology will remain in the grasps of the public. The public use bar serves to deny a patent on any technology that has been introduced to the public more than one year prior to the filing of a patent application. Such laws either preclude removal of technology from the public domain or limit the term of public exposure prior to enactment of patent rights.