Why do patents expire? How are they renewed?

31 October 2016
In Blog, Law, Patents
By Mark Warburton, the IP Guru

Why do patents expire? How are they renewed?

Patents are effectively a social contract. In exchange for you revealing your invention to the public so they can replicate it, you get a time-limited monopoly on that invention.

Renewals are there to ensure that monopolies are not left in place if they are not commercially required. If the invention is commercially worthwhile, then it is worth renewing.

There are other more sceptical views on it too, but I will not go into those.

Related Posts:

Mark Warburton About the author

The Intellectual Property Guru. His determination to protect innovation stems from a family legacy in which his grandfather, a genius inventor, had his innovations stolen and patented by someone he trusted, which led to his grandfather dying a pauper on a park bench. Mark is an international award winning lawyer and patent attorney and 3-time published author. His prowess in the court room sees him winning cases that others thought were unwinnable. Mark’s passion for protecting intellectual property shines through in his pro-bono legal mentoring, proactive legal workshops and 1-2-1 work with clients.