A patent protects novel ideas for useful products and methods.
A patent is a property right granted by the Government of the United States of America to an inventor “to exclude others from making, using, offering sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States” for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted.
The UC Patent Policy(link is external) governs the University’s ownership of patentable inventions.