A Patent gives property rights to the inventor or the manufacturer of the item. US Patent and the Trademark Office (USPTO) issues patent, which are valid for twenty years from the date of patent application. Once a commodity, invention or a process is patented, others are exempted from using or manufacturing those entities. Sometimes inventors are unaware of How to get a Patent? The USPTO issues following three types of patents:

1. Utility Patent: This type of patent is issued to a person you invents a new machine or a new process or a new and effective composition in product.

2. Design Patent: These type of patents are issued to ones who invent a brand new design of an entity that adds to the usefulness of that entity.

3. Plant Patent: This patent is issued to the people who discover a new species of plant, which is different from current known varieties.

When you discover a new item, process, design or plant species and you feel that this is not known to anyone and you decide to patent it, first step you should follow is to confirm whether your new discovery is really new. For this you need to search and confirm, that your invention is unique and more than that it is not been patented. The best way to confirm that your invention is unique is to visit the USPTO site www.uspto.gov and search for any patent for your invention. The site provides a facility to search all the patents as old as till 1971. Once you confirm that your invention is unique and it has never been patented, you can proceed to applying for a patent. There are following two ways of applying for a patent:

1. Provisional Patent: Being an inventor of a product, if you feel that, someone might steal your idea of the product, you can go for a provisional patent. A Provision Patent is affordable, very simple to file and there is no legal representation. However the provisional patent lasts only for one year, after which you need to apply for regular patent or else you no longer have the patent rights for that item. The provisional patent application includes a cover page, a detailed and exact description of the product to be patented (the description should be apt, as you won’t be able to change it when filing a regular patent) and proper drawing of the item to be patented. A fee of $ 150 is charged for medium or large business or entity and a fee of $ 75 for small entity.

2. Regular Patent: The following two things should be included in the application for a regular patent: a) Specification – This includes a detailed and minute description of the product that needs to be patented. A diagram of the product (a flowchart for the process) should be included in this description b) Claim: this is an equally important part of the regular patent which includes the details of the innovative features of the product or the process. If you feel that your invention is indeed innovative, and that there should be fewer obstacles in patenting your invention on your name, then better consult a patent lawyer. Though this way would cost you a bit, however it would be worth to ensure the correct filing of the patent. This description will definitely assist you on How to get a Patent.

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