A patent provides ownership to an inventor for a specific period of time. A patent requires a public disclosure and filing with a patent office. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USTPO) of the U.S. government, provides for the review, issue, and management of patents. U.S. patents are given for physical inventions, pharmaceuticals, software, genes, business processes, and more.

Modern patents can trace their roots to Venice, Italy in 1474 under a decree to protect inventions. The first U.S. patent was issued on July 31, 1790 to Samuel Hopkins for an apparatus in the making of pot ash. Today, The USPTO issues more than 150,000 patents yearly. As of 2008, the USPTO had issued more than 8 million patents.

U.S. patents require the submission of a patent application with a filing fee. Patents are typically filed with the help of a lawyer or legal service. The total cost for a U.S. patent is in the range of $2,000 to $15,000. The typical term for patents are 20 years in the U.S. from the filing date of the application.

There is much controversy surrounding the patent system, particularly U.S. patent law. Patents, although protecting the rights of the inventor, are seen to limit human progress. Additionally, a single device may be under the auspices of several, even hundreds, of different patents, making it impossible to obtain the rights necessary to bring the product to market. Approximately 5% of World Health Organization essential drugs are patented.http://www.ip-institute.org.uk/pdfs/Perceptions%20of%20IP.pdf . There is also controversy surrounding gene patents and the ability to own the intellectual property to life.