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Debate the view that patents are a monopoly privilege that ought to be abolished. 1. What is a patent? 2. What kinds of things do patents cover? 3. Debate the views of patents. 1. What is a patent? A Patent is a statutory grant which confers on an inventor or his legal successor the right to exclude others from using the invention. Patents have a limited duration, usually a period of at least 20 years. The granting of a patent is conditioned on novelty, a minimal degree of inventive ingenuity, and the industrial applicability of an invention. The patent as a legal right is not to be confused with a printed patent specification or with a particular invention. To be patentable the invention must meet four special conditions: ¡¤ The invention has to be new The invention must be the first time to be published in any way, anywhere in the world, before the date on which an application for a patent is filed. ¡¤ The invention has to be involved an inventive step (i.e. it is not a discovery) An invention involves an inventive step if, when compared with what is already known, it would not be obvious to someone with a good knowledge and experience of the subject. ¡¤ The invention has to be capable of industrial application An invention must be qualified of being used in some kind of industry. This means that the invention must take the practical form of an apparatus or device, a product such as some new material or substance or an industrial process or method of operation.. ¡¤ The invention must not be ¡°excluded¡± 2, What kinds of things do patents cover? Patents are usually intend to cover products or processes that possess or contain new functional or technical aspects; patents are therefore concerned with , how things work, what they do, how they do it, what they are made of or how they are made. The vast majority of patents are for incremental improvements in known technology; it has been said that innovation is very evolution rather than revolution.
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