The US Patent and Trademark Office defines a patent as the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. For inventors and the companies they work for, this is important to understand.
First, because it is not the right to build and sell the device, it is a property right to prevent others from doing so. Your invention may be an improvement on someone else’s product, so you could not sell your product without selling theirs. That means a lot of times inventors will either sell or license their property rights to someone who can, or cross-license the necessary products to be able to build it themselves.
Second, it is a grant of a property right to the inventor. The United States is somewhat unique in this respect. Most of the rest of the world grants the right to the company or group that owns the right to the invention, such as a company where the inventor works and signed over his rights as part of the employment agreement. The US still requires that the inventor be named, and attest to the fact that this was something they invented, no matter who owns the rights as you can see from https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/inventhelp.
Finally, it is a right granted by the US Patent Office. This means that people who build, buy and sell products similar to your or that use similar processes, materials, or devices (depending on what you’ve patented) are put on notice only as to products built, bought or sold in the United States.
So without protection in Germany, for instance, a company in Germany could build, buy, sell, or use your invention without any right on your part to stop them, except as to any transaction within the US. Fortunately there is a way to gain those rights, but it must be done within a short period of time after the patent is filed, and it can be costly. There are companies like InventHelp that could help you out as you can find on Invent Help reviews all over the web.
