Patent types
The three patents you can file in the U.S.
Utility patents protect how something works. Design patents protect how it looks. Plant patents protect a new variety. The right choice depends on what you actually invented.
01 — Most common
≈ 90% of all U.S. patentsUtility patent
Utility patents cover the way something works. They are the type most people mean when they say "patent." To qualify, an invention must be useful, novel, and non-obvious — the three core patentability requirements. Once granted, the patent gives the owner the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, or importing the claimed invention for 20 years from the earliest filing datefiling dateThe day the patent application was submitted to the USPTO. Sets the priority date for prior-art comparisons.Read more →, assuming maintenance feesmaintenance feesPeriodic fees the USPTO charges to keep a granted utility patent in force (3.5, 7.5, 11.5 years post-grant). Miss one and the patent expires early.Read more → are paid at 3.5, 7.5, and 11.5 years.
Term
20 years from filing
Protects
How something works — function, process, machine, composition.
Cost
~$8K–$25K to draft and prosecute. ~$2K in USPTO fees alone.
Difficulty
Hardest to get. Examiners search prior artprior artEarlier patents, publications, or products that existed before this patent's filing date. Patent claims must be novel over the prior art.Read more → aggressively under §102 and §103.
Who files
Inventors of mechanisms, software, chemistry, biotech, hardware.
Famous examples
- · iPhone multi-touch (US 7,479,949)
- · Amazon one-click (US 5,960,411)
- · CRISPR-Cas9 (US 8,697,359)
- · PageRank (US 6,285,999)
02 — Shape and look
≈ 8% of U.S. patentsDesign patent
Design patents protect only the ornamental, non-functional appearance of an article. The drawings are the patent — the claimclaimA numbered sentence at the end of a patent that legally defines what the inventor owns. The most important section.Read more → simply says "the ornamental design as shown." If a competitor copies the look but changes the function, design protection still applies; if they keep the function but change the look, it doesn't. Apple's design-patent damages against Samsung — based on the iPhone's rectangular shape with rounded corners — produced one of the largest design-patent verdicts in history.
Term
15 years from grant
Protects
How something looks — ornamental appearance only.
Cost
~$2K–$5K total. Cheaper and faster than utility.
Difficulty
Much easier. Often issued in under a year with no claimclaimA numbered sentence at the end of a patent that legally defines what the inventor owns. The most important section.Read more → amendments.
Who files
Consumer product designers, fashion, industrial design, UI graphics.
Famous examples
- · iPhone rounded-rectangle (US D618,677)
- · Coca-Cola contour bottle (US D63,657)
- · Apple iPod (US D504,889)
- · Nike shoe upper (countless filings)
03 — Rare
< 1% of U.S. patentsPlant patent
Plant patents apply to new and distinct varieties that have been asexually reproduced — meaning the plant was multiplied through cuttings, grafting, budding, or division, not by seed. The Plant Patentplant patentCovers a new, asexually reproduced plant variety. Rare — fewer than 1,500 granted per year.Read more → Act of 1930 was the first U.S. extension of patent protection to living things. Plants reproduced from seed cannot be covered by plant patents but may be covered by the separate Plant Variety Protection Act administered by the USDA. Many newly branded grocery-store fruits — Cosmic Crisp, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp — are plant patents.
Term
20 years from filing
Protects
New, asexually reproduced plant varieties (cuttings, grafts, buds).
Cost
~$3K–$6K. Specialized practitioners.
Difficulty
Moderate. Requires asexual reproduction proof and detailed botanical description.
Who files
Agricultural breeders, nurseries, horticulturalists, biotech in plants.
Famous examples
- · Cosmic Crisp apple (US PP24,210)
- · Knock Out rose (US PP11,836)
- · Honeycrisp apple (US PP07,197)
- · SweeTango apple (US PP20,517)
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