IP Basics

What is a patent?

Patents protect inventions: new, inventive and industrially applicable technical solutions, from molecules to machines.

Patents, in short

How you get it: application and examination at a patent office (EPO, USPTO, national offices).
How long it lasts: 20 years from filing, and only for as long as you keep paying the renewal or maintenance fees. Stop paying and the patent lapses early.
Extensions are routine, not exotic: in the US, Patent Term Adjustment (35 U.S.C. §154(b)) adds a day of term for each day the patent office itself is late. Roughly two thirds of US patents receive some.
On top of that: Patent Term Extension (35 U.S.C. §156) compensates for time lost to regulatory review, the US counterpart of the European supplementary protection certificate (SPC). Both cap out at 5 extra years.
The trade-off: full public disclosure of the invention in exchange for the monopoly.