Patent Law
Innovation creates value—but only if it can be protected. York Law LLC helps inventors, entrepreneurs, startups, manufacturers, and established businesses identify, secure, and leverage patent rights that support long-term business objectives. Whether developing a first patent strategy or managing an established intellectual property portfolio, clients receive practical legal counsel focused on protecting competitive advantage and maximizing the commercial value of innovation.
What Is a Patent?
A patent is a property right granted by the United States government through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Subject to the patent laws, a patent gives its owner the exclusive right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the claimed invention within the United States for a limited period of time.
Patent protection may be available for:
- Processes and manufacturing methods
- Machines and mechanical systems
- Products and manufactured articles
- Chemical compositions and formulations
- Software-implemented technologies and business innovations (when eligible)
- Improvements to existing technologies
- Ornamental product designs
- New varieties of plants
Patent Strategy Begins Before Filing
A successful patent strategy involves far more than preparing and filing an application. The most important decisions are often made before the first document is submitted to the USPTO.
York Law LLC works with clients to evaluate:
- Whether an invention is likely to qualify for patent protection.
- Whether patent protection is the appropriate form of intellectual property protection, or whether trade secret protection may provide a stronger competitive advantage.
- The commercial value of pursuing patent protection.
- Competitive technologies and the existing patent landscape.
- Domestic and international filing strategies.
- Budget considerations and long-term portfolio development.
The objective is not simply to obtain a patent—it is to obtain meaningful patent protection that advances the client's business objectives.
Patentability Requirements
Not every invention qualifies for patent protection. Generally, an invention must satisfy several statutory requirements, including:
- Novelty — the invention must be new.
- Utility — the invention must have a practical use.
- Nonobviousness — the invention cannot represent an obvious variation of existing technology to a person having ordinary skill in the relevant field.
Determining whether these requirements are satisfied frequently requires careful evaluation of both patent and non-patent literature and a thorough understanding of the applicable technology.
Patent Searching and Prior Art Analysis
Patent searches are valuable tools for evaluating innovation, identifying competitors, and reducing uncertainty before significant resources are invested in patent prosecution.
Depending upon the client's objectives, searches may be conducted for purposes such as:
- Patentability evaluations
- Prior art investigations
- Freedom-to-operate analyses
- Competitive intelligence
- Patent validity challenges
- Portfolio due diligence
- Technology landscape assessments
Although no search can guarantee patentability, an informed understanding of the existing technology landscape often produces better legal decisions and stronger business strategy.
Types of Patent Protection
Utility Patents
Utility patents protect how an invention works—its structure, operation, function, or process. This is the form of patent protection most commonly associated with new technologies and innovations.
Generally, utility patents remain in force for twenty years from the earliest effective filing date, subject to payment of required maintenance fees.
Design Patents
Design patents protect the ornamental, non-functional appearance of an article of manufacture rather than how it operates.
Applications filed on or after May 13, 2015, generally provide fifteen years of protection from issuance.
Plant Patents
Plant patents protect certain new and distinct varieties of plants that have been invented or discovered and asexually reproduced.
Provisional and Non-Provisional Applications
Many inventors first consider whether to file a provisional patent application.
A provisional application establishes an early filing date while allowing additional time to further develop the invention, evaluate commercial opportunities, seek investment, or prepare a complete non-provisional application. A provisional application is never examined by the USPTO and expires after twelve months unless followed by a corresponding non-provisional filing.
A non-provisional application initiates formal examination before the USPTO. During prosecution, the assigned patent examiner evaluates the application against the prior art and applicable patent statutes before determining whether the claimed invention qualifies for patent protection.
Selecting the appropriate filing strategy depends upon the client's technology, business objectives, development timeline, and budget.
How Long Does the Patent Process Take?
Patent prosecution varies considerably depending upon the technology involved, USPTO examination workload, and the complexity of the issues raised during examination.
As a general guideline:
- Utility patent applications often require approximately three to four years from filing to issuance under standard examination procedures.
- Certain technologies, including software and pharmaceutical inventions, may require substantially longer prosecution.
- Design patent applications frequently issue within approximately nine to eighteen months.
Expedited examination procedures may be available in appropriate circumstances.
Strategic Patent Counsel
Patents are business assets—not merely legal documents.
York Law LLC assists clients throughout the innovation lifecycle, including invention evaluation, patentability assessments, application preparation and prosecution, portfolio development, licensing, due diligence, enforcement, administrative proceedings before the USPTO, and strategic counseling designed to align intellectual property protection with broader business objectives.