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What is the purpose of a patent?
The rationale for a patent system is to provide an advantage to society as a whole by rewarding the development of new inventions. Thus, the patent system has two basic purposes: to promote the advancement of technology and to protect the inventor.
Promoting Technological Advancement
The patent system provides a process for the disclosure of valuable information that can stimulate research across the globe. To obtain a patent, an inventor must "teach" the public how to make and use the invention in the best way the inventor knows. Thus, the patent system rewards only those inventors who are willing to share their inventions with the whole world.
Moreover, the information disclosed in a patent application is usually available to the public long before a patent issues. If a patent application is filed internationally or (from 2000 onwards) in the United States, it is published 18 months after its initial filing. The exception to this rule is that an applicant who has filed only in the U.S. and not abroad may request that the U.S. application not be published. If however, the applicant files in a foreign country, then the U.S. patent application will be published. Once published, a patent application and all its information are available to anyone. Thus, the patent system greatly stimulates the flow of scientific and technological knowledge. That's why societies that protect inventors with patents are the world's most advanced, scientifically and technologically.
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