The founder and managing partner of Gershman Law, PLLC, Dyan Gershman is a highly experienced New York City corporate lawyer who concentrates her legal practice on mergers and acquisitions and corporate and business matters. Dyan Gershman also provides legal advice in the area of intellectual property licensing. A patent is an intellectual property (IP) right that gives its holder the exclusive right to use, sell, or share the property with another entity. Unless a mutual agreement exists between a third party and a patent holder, the third party cannot use the patented invention. There are three types of patents: design, utility, and plant.

1. Types of Patents - Intellectual Property
Rights
Dyan Gershman

2. Introduction
The founder and managing partner of Gershman Law, PLLC, Dyan Gershman is a highly
experienced New York City corporate lawyer who concentrates her legal practice on
mergers and acquisitions and corporate and business matters. Dyan Gershman also
provides legal advice in the area of intellectual property licensing.

3. A patent is an intellectual property (IP) right that gives its holder the exclusive right to
use, sell, or share the property with another entity. Unless a mutual agreement exists
between a third party and a patent holder, the third party cannot use the patented
invention. There are three types of patents: design, utility, and plant.

4. A design patent is obtained by an inventor who intends to secure their intellectual design
(product's appearance) from unauthorized use by third parties who had no contribution
to the creation of the idea. A typical example of a design patent is a patent protecting the
ornamental design of jewelry.

5. Utility patents are the most commonly obtained type of IP patent, and they protect the
structures and mechanical frameworks of tangible inventions or innovative processes.
For example, patents relating to automobile assistance system models would be
classified as a utility patent.

6. Plant patents are exclusively designed for plants that are generated via asexual
reproduction. Nonsexual propagation methods give rise to such plants after the scientific
efforts of inventors. Plants that emerge from tubers (although a vegetative organ) are
excluded from this type of patent.