5.3 THE THREE CLASSES OF PATENTS
Patent law recognizes three classes of patents: utility, design, and plant. In this book we are concerned primarily with utility patents, the most important class of patents in terms of numbers of patents granted, as well as the total value of the protection awarded to patent owners (see Section 4.1). Utility patents include mechanical, electrical, chemical, and biological inventions. A utility patent can usually be obtained for just about any new and useful invention the human mind can conceive, be it a new toy or cure for cancer. For completeness, we mention that design patents protect the shape or design of an object like a Coca-Cola bottle, and plant patents cover asexually reproduced plants. The concepts discussed in this book generally apply only to utility patents. Design and plant patents are beyond the scope of this book.
We are now ready to discuss requirements of patentability.
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