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WHAT IS A... ?
III. Types of Intellectual Property
Patent
Patents are the vehicle through which a company can pro- tect technical aspects of its innovations.
If the innovation is an invention that brings a new and non- obvious technical solution in the form of an apparatus, product, method (process) or composition of matter it may afford patent protection.
A patent provides the patent owners with protection for their inventions. for a limited period of time, usually 20 years. The patent owner has the exclusive rights to prevent or stop others from manufacturing, using, selling, or importing a product or process based on the patented invention without the patentee’s prior authorization. In return for the exclu- sive right, the patent owner has to disclose the invention to the public by describing the invention in detail. In some countries inventions may be protected by utility models. The requirements for acquiring a utility model are less stringent than for patents. Like a patent, a utility model has to be new, but the threshold for the non-obvious technical solution is much lower.
Compared with patents, utility models are much cheaper and faster to obtain, but the scope and term of protection is reduced. In some countries utility models are not available for certain elds of technology. Utility models are usually valid for 7 to 10 years.
Process and device for putting pieces of food into a receptacle
For internal use only
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Chocolate packaging
and method for packaging chocolate bars