PATENTS

Biotech innovation relies heavily on patents and trade secrets, and less so on trademarks and copyrights.

The Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Law (see Recommended Reading) describes a US patent as "an exclusive right granted by the federal government that entitles the inventor to prevent anyone else from making, using, or selling the patented process or invention in the United States". The purpose of the patent is to encourage inventors to publicly disclose their inventions in exchange for 20 years of protection of their idea from the application filing dating. Once the patent expires, the knowledge it contains becomes public domain.

According to US law, anyone who "invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent". Machine refers to any physical device or instrument and manufacturing refers to novel ways of making something. In biotech, composition of matter often refers to the chemical structures and formulations of drugs, genes, and proteins. Process patents, also known as Use or Utility patents cover novel applications of a product, which may itself be covered by a separate Machine or Composition patent.