ABSTRACT
A patent is the legal instrument by which inventors protect their substantial investment in time, effort, and money to create new technology and new products. Patents are a form of intellectual property with rights afforded by the U.S. constitution in Article I, Section 8: ‘‘The congress shall have the power . . . to promote the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for limited times to . . . inventors the exclusive right to their . . . discoveries.’’
