Introduction to Intellectual Property: A U.S. Perspective

Many biotechnology innovators opt for patents, which grant legal, time-limited monopolies to eligible inventions. To obtain a patent in the United States, an invention must be useful to the public and made or altered by the hand of man. It must then clear the hurdles of novelty and nonobviousness. If an invention can do that, obtaining a patent becomes a matter of form: Who qualifies as an inventor? Does the application demonstrate possession, stake a clear claim to the protection sought, and enable “ordinary” colleagues to replicate it? Has the inventor purposely withheld anything? In this article, Finnegan attorneys Thomas L. Irving, Amanda K. Murphy, and Michael A. Stramiello address each of these hurdles as they apply to biotech inventions.

*Stacy Lewis is a law clerk at Finnegan.