The idea of "use" patents is to encourage making ideas available to everybody.
If you think of a novel use, and get a patent, you may not be able to stop people from doing it on their own, but you might be able to make a little money on it, and then the patent gets published, so everybody knows about it.
I thought of a novel use the other day, but it costs money to get a patent, so I mentally shelved the idea, and now I've forgotten it. Probably someone else thought of it, or will think of it, anyway.
I do this all the time. I have three or four bright ideas I haven't forgotten but one was eventually patented by someone else before I got around to it, and the rest sort of come and go.
The formula for Coca cola, on the other hand, will never become public because it's not patented, it's a trade secret. |
