Time limitation, patents

Drug company conducts testing and submits results to the FDA Receives time-limited patent with exclusive production rights from FDA... 

A patent is intended to further the development of science and technology by providing a pubHshed record of technological developments for all to read, consider, and discuss. At the same time, a patent provides a delineation or definition of the rights which the patent owner considers its own through the claims appended to the patent. The pubHcation of a description of the invention in conjunction with the claimed limits of the invention provides the pubHc with notice of the patent owner s affirmative rights to the invention. 

Utility Patents. Utility patents are granted to individuals only who have invented or discovered any new and useful method, process, machine, manufacture, or matter composition. These patents must be useful to society (have utility). A utility patent has a total time limit for exclusive use by the inventor of 17 years. 

Procedurally, an interference occurs when one or more claims in a patent application is substantially the same as one or more claims in another patent application with certain time bar limitations when the action can occur. These time bars are a consequence of 102(b), which sets a time limit on the first-to-invent aspect of U.S. patent law. A later filed patent application that claims or could be drawn to claim the same subject matter as an earlier filed patent application or patent must be filed within 1 year of the time the earlier patent application was published or patented. If the later applicant files after the 1-year period, then the earlier art becomes 102(b) prior art that cannot be removed by proof of prior invention. As a practical matter, 102(g) prior art can be especially problematic because it can take the longest time to discover, and moreover, an interference can take significant time (and money) to resolve. 

The declaration of an interference can either be the result of an internal check at the US Patent Office of pending applications or as the result of provocation by an applicant. This occurs when the applicant sees a patent issue with overlapping subject matter based on an application filed by another within certain time limits. There does not have to be a complete overlap in allowable subject matter, merely some overlap. The applicant then copies claims from the patent for purposes of having an interference declared. As the Examiner must first determine that the applications contain otherwise allowable subject matter, interferences take place only at the end of the prosecution stage. 

The time limitation. A patent has a limited life, which in a great number of countries is further restricted by its being subjected to the payment of maintenance fees or the Uke, so that failure to pay such fees automatically invalidates the patent. 

Those seeking to apply for a patent or to preserve the option to do so can minimize the risk of losing potential patent rights by being aware of actions that defeat patentability or that place a time limit on applying for a patent. Such actions include ... 

Patent rules and regulations change and it is important to verify costs and time limitations as well as other items given in this description of patents. 

The Octane Requirement Increase, ORI, is a phenomenon manifested by the appearance of knocking and is due to the increase in engine octane demand with time. This phenomenon is correlated with the increase of solid deposits in the combustion chamber. Although the causes have not been determined with certainty, some companies have patented additives which modify the deposits. The effect is to limit the increase in octane demand (Bert et al., 1983 Chevron, 1988 Nelson et al., 1989). 

Historically, the development of the acrylates proceeded slowly they first received serious attention from Otto Rohm. AcryUc acid (propenoic acid) was first prepared by the air oxidation of acrolein in 1843 (1,2). Methyl and ethyl acrylate were prepared in 1873, but were not observed to polymerize at that time (3). In 1880 poly(methyl acrylate) was reported by G. W. A. Kahlbaum, who noted that on dry distillation up to 320°C the polymer did not depolymerize (4). Rohm observed the remarkable properties of acryUc polymers while preparing for his doctoral dissertation in 1901 however, a quarter of a century elapsed before he was able to translate his observations into commercial reaUty. He obtained a U.S. patent on the sulfur vulcanization of acrylates in 1912 (5). Based on the continuing work in Rohm s laboratory, the first limited production of acrylates began in 1927 by the Rohm and Haas Company in Darmstadt, Germany (6). Use of this class of compounds has grown from that time to a total U.S. consumption in 1989 of approximately 400,000 metric tons. Total worldwide consumption is probably twice that. 

---