The patent was seen as not only a business need but also a means to protect inventors.

Despite the move, there has been a chorus of calls for fundamentally revamping the patents system, which was originally intended to promote innovative research by protecting inventors and entrepreneurs.

The patent system was devised to protect inventors and promote invention.

The first-to-file system awards and protects inventors who take their work to the patent office and attempt to use or sell inventions in ways that grow our economy.

I am confident, however, that the new first-to-file system does more to protect inventors so they can focus on creating technologies that better lives instead of worrying about stumbling into legal traps.

The point of the doctrine is to protect inventors from poachers who appropriate the essence of a patent without crossing its literal borders.

A patent is a grant, originally a royal prerogative, made to protect inventors, whether individuals, firms or other corporate bodies.

But Mr. Lehman is meeting stiff resistance from some of the people whose work he is pledged to protect: independent researchers and inventors.

Its purpose is to protect inventors from competitors who tiptoe close to the edge of a patent without crossing its border.

Patents protect the weak; they protect inventors against those who wield market power.