DRM News

(COLCHESTER) An experienced panel, including DRM’s Lawrence Meier and representing three perspectives on patent law, will address how proposed federal patent law changes currently under consideration will affect Vermont bioscience and software technology companies on Tuesday, June 28, 4 – 7 p.m., at the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Colchester. The presentation, which is open to all who are interested in the topic, is hosted by the Vermont Biosciences Alliance and the Vermont Software Developers’ Alliance.

Although a patent is often thought of as the physical document that illustrates and describes an invention, a patent is actually a grant from the U.S. government of the right to exclude others for a limited period of time from “practicing” the invention “claimed” in the physical document. The power of the U.S. government to grant these patent rights flows from the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8. In the U.S., there are three types of patents – utility, design and plant. The utility patent is by far the most common type of patent granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. An application for a utility patent is a complex document that seeks to provide the inventor the broadest scope of legal protection possible.