There are three different types of patents:

1. Utility Patent – a structure or apparatus that is new and useful (has “utility”). This type of patent covers function and can include machinery and medicine, and the patent protection lasts for 20 years.

2. Plant Patent – a newly discovered asexually reproduced new variety of plant. For example, a new type of rose can be patented, and the patent protection lasts for 20 years.

3. Design Patent – a new, original, ornamental design for a manufactured item. This patent covers the way an item looks, and the patent protection lasts for 14 years.

As an Online Think Tank member, I know that there are two or more sides to every issues and different perspectives and belief systems on all sides of any debate about right and wrong. Yet, I see international intellectual patent protection as a crisis that should have already been solved. The United States must seize this opportunity to fix the problems with our trading partners on the other side of the planet.

Some say that in the future the US will design everything and the Chinese will make it all. But that is not really true and anyone who is watching the changes and trends can see it simply is not so. So what am I saying here?