INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

When a patent is granted, that issuance gives the property right to the inventor [1]. A patent gives the inventor ownership of the idea for 20 years after the patent is approved. There are three types of patents: utility patents, design patents, and plant patents. For this device, a utility patent would be the most applicable. One component of a utility patent is the invention or discovery of a new and useful article of manufacture [1]. In this situation, the bandage for the automatic and continuous monitoring of wounds is the invention of a new and useful article of manufacture.

To file the patent, all records of the invention need to be kept. Student’s individual notes, signed and dated, will need to be kept in a notebook for legal purposes. After all research and final designs have been determined, a provisional patent application (PPA) can be filed. For a provisional patent, a detailed description of the patent, manufacturing instructions, and informal drawings are required [1]. After one year of receiving a provisional patent, a regular patent application must be filed to prevent loss of the provisional filing date. This is the same path that this device would take. For the bandage, a provisional patent could be filed first. After receipt of the provisional patent, testing and final designs would be completed. Within a year, a regular patent application would be filed.

An item cannot be patented if “the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention” or if “the claimed invention was described in a patent issued [by the U.S.] or in an application for patent published or deemed published [by the U.S.], in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention” [2]. At this time, there are no bandages on the market that are able to give responses to wound pH, levels of wound nitric oxide, and levels of wound oxygen, all indicators of the wound healing process. There are also no pre-existing patents of bandages that are able to monitor these three conditions. Devices that are on the market that are similar, but do not achieve the same goals area a method of monitoring parameters that could lead to a medical condition; a sensor for monitoring movement that could be inserted into a bandage; and a platform for monitoring wounds and ulcers through hydration levels [3], [4], [5]. For this device, the entire bandage could be patented as a device for the monitoring of pH levels, nitric oxide levels, and oxygen levels in wounds. This is a new and unique device that does not already exist on the market and has not yet been patented.