Term of patent in the United States

United States patent law
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Under United States patent law, the term of patent, provided that maintenance fees are paid on time, is 20 years from the filing date of the earliest U.S. or international application (that is to say, an application under the PCT system) to which priority is claimed (excluding provisional applications).[1][2][3]

The patent term in the United States was changed in 1995 to bring U.S. patent law into conformity with the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) as negotiated in the Uruguay Round. As a side effect, it is no longer possible to maintain submarine patents in the U.S., since the patent term now depends on the filing date, not the issue date.

Design patents have a shorter term than utility patents. Design patents filed on or after May 13, 2015, have a term of 15 years from issuance.[4][5] Design patents filed prior to May 13, 2015, have a term of 14 years from issuance.[6]

  1. ^ 35 U.S.C. § 154(a)(2)
  2. ^ 35 U.S.C. § 365(c)
  3. ^ 2701 Patent Term (R-2); - 2700 Patent Terms and Extensions
  4. ^ "Government Printing Office p. 126, stat. 1532"
  5. ^ "Price Heneveld" Archived 2014-01-10 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ USPTO web site, MPEP - 2701 Patent Term (R-2)