Patents are one of the most valuable types of protection available for new ideas and products. The grant of a United States patent confers a property right on the owner that allows the owner of the patent “to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States” for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted. Like other forms of property rights, a patent may be bought, sold, and licensed. While the patent process is sometimes daunting, many successful companies have found the effort well worth the time, money and energy. The present term for a utility patent is 20 years from the date of filing.

In order to be eligible for patent protection, United States patent law requires that an invention be:

• New or Novel: The invention must be demonstrably different from publicly available ideas, inventions, or products (so-called "prior art"). This does not mean that every aspect of an invention must be novel. For example, new uses of known processes, machines, compositions of matter and materials are patentable. Incremental improvements on known processes may also be patentable.
• Useful: The invention must have some application or utility or be an improvement over existing products and/or techniques.
• Non-Obvious: The invention cannot be obvious to a person of "ordinary skill" in the field; non-obviousness may be demonstrated by showing that the invention yields surprising or unexpected results.

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