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What is a patent? “A patent is defined as a monopoly right granted to a person who has invented a new and useful article or an improvement of an existing article or a new process of making an article.” A patent does not give the inventor the right to use the invention. (The inventor of a new kind of nuclear bomb will not have the right to use it; similarly, a prior patent may block the inventor's use.) A patent gives the inventor only the right to prevent others from making, using, selling, offering, or importing the subject matter claimed in the patent. The patent in the law, becomes the property of the inventor and it can be given away, inherited, sold, licensed and can even be abandoned. The right subsists only for a limited period and at the expiry of the period, any person can make use of the invention. A patent is not granted for a mere idea or principle, but for some article or the process of making an article applying the idea.
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