A patent is for an invention the grant of a property right to the innovator, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. 

Generally, the term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States, subject to the payment of conservation fees. U.S. patent subventions are effective only within the United States, U.S. homes, and U.S. effects. 

Under certain circumstances, patent term extensions or adaptations may be available.

The right conferred by the patent entitlement is, in the language of the enactment and of the entitlement itself, the right to count others from “making, using, offering for trade, or dealing” the invention in the United States or “ importing” the invention into the United States. What's granted isn't the right to make, use, offer for trade, sell or import, but the right to count others from making, using, offering for trade, dealing or importing the invention. Once a patent is issued, the patentee must apply the patent without aid of the USPTO.

There are three types of patents

1) Utility patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, composition of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful enhancement thereof;

2) Design patents may be granted to anyone who invents a new, original, and cosmetic design for an composition of manufacture; and

3) Plant patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of factory.

Patent Applications must satisfy the following three criteria

• Novelty

This means that your invention must not have been made public – not indeed by yourself – before the date of the operation.

• Inventive step

This means that your product or process must be an inventive result. It cannot be a result that would be obvious to a manufacturer. 

• Industrial applicability

The invention must be in fact subject to be manufactured in real life