There are three types of patents. They are utility, design, and plant.

Utility Patents: Utility patents are where people think of when they think patents. Utility patents on useful items. These are the patents one would get on an invention such as a patent coverage of the usefulness of a product meaning that a utility patent will protect the useful or functional aspects of an invention.

Design Patents: Design patents are used for the ornamental design of an object. Considering the fins on the car is a simple way to approach design patents. If you remember all 1950s cars, many of them had big fins on them. They did not make the cars faster, improve aerodynamics, and do not serve any function but served no purpose other than to look cool. They were pure design, design elements are protected by the design patents. Utility patents covered the functional part of the car such as engine, transmission, breaks, etc.

Plant Patents: Asexually reproduced flowering plants cover new types of plant patents. Flowers are plants’ sex organs in certain both the male and female plants. Pollen is basically plants’ sperm. Plant patents thus apply to plants that are engineered to be reduced without the use of pollen.

Is My Invention Patentable?

It is very likely that it is patentable when a product or process is new and useful. To be patentable an invention must be new, useful, and obvious. Being new is often the hardest part of the patent prosecution process but the “Novelty” requirement is the easiest for non-practitioners to understand. To get a patent on an invention the invention must be new. Patent law much of the process focuses on explaining how and why the invention is different from what came before.