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How can a patent be
exploited?
Patents can be used in a defensive manner to protect an idea by
preventing others from making, using, selling, or offering the idea for
sale. Patents may also by used in an offensive manner to generate
streams of revenue through licenses granted to others. These licenses
may be territorial and only grant the licensee rights to certain
markets. Or they may be exclusive and nonrestrictive in nature.
Since a patent is personal property, it may be sold to others or
mortgaged. It may also pass to the heirs of a deceased patent owner by a
testamentary document such as a will. Patent law provides for the
transfer or sale of a patent or patent application, by a written
instrument known as the assignment. An assignment may transfer an entire
interest in the patent to another. Or an assignment may transfer a part
interest in a patent or patent application to another. The assignee
(when the patent is assigned to him or her) becomes the owner of the
patent and has the same rights that the original patentee had.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office can record assignments, grants, and
similar instruments for a fee. Recording such documents serves as public
notice to subsequent purchasers of interests in the patent. If a
purchased interest, such as an assignment, grant, or conveyance of an
issued patent or a pending patent application, is not recorded in the
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office within three months from its date, it
is void against a subsequent purchaser for a valuable consideration
without notice, unless it is recorded prior to the subsequent purchase.
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