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Patents
Inventors are entitled to obtain a patent on their inventions unless the invention is (a) not useful, (b) not new, or (c) would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the field of the invention. There are three types: (1) utility, (2) design, and (3) plant. Utility patents protect the structure and function of an invention, design patents protect the ornamental design of an invention, and plant patents protect the invention or discovery of new varieties of certain plants.
There are critical timing requirements relating acts of public disclosure or use of an invention to the filing of a patent application. Until you understand these requirements, you should keep your invention confidential.
Utility Patents
Utility patents protect the useful aspects of machines, methods (or processes), articles of manufacture (e.g., pencils, resistors), or "compositions of matter" (e.g., chemical compounds, materials).
Theoretically, the only alternative to the protection provided by a utility patent is to maintain the invention as a trade secret. However, it is also possible in practice to protect inventions under unfair competition law.
Utility patents claim the invention in words (in numbered sentences at the end of the patent).
Utility patents filed on or after June 8, 1995 have a maximum life of 20 years from the date of filing the first related (nonprovisional) patent application.
Utility patents typically cost about $10,000 or more to obtain. There are filing and issuing fees due the United States Patent & Trademark Office totaling about 20% of the cost. The remainder is for drafting the application (about 50% of the total cost), and submitting arguments in response to patentability issues raised by the patent examiner (about 30% of the total cost).
Design Patents
Design patents protect the ornamental (or nonfunctional) aspects of the same inventions that can be protected by utility patents.
Therefore, you want a design patent when you want to protect the appearance, as opposed to the utility, of your invention.
Design patents, for the most part, claim the invention in drawings showing the claimed design.
For this reason, design patents are much less expensive to prepare than utility patents. There are also no fees required to maintain them during their 14 year life.