A patent is a license granted by the government to an inventor, giving him for a certain period, the exclusive right to the use of his invention.

A patent right is an incorporeal kind of personal property, not susceptible of actual delivery or possession.1 There is no common law right in patents. The United States Constitution authorizes Congress to provide for the granting of patents,2 and patent rights in the United States are entirely statutory. The provisions of the Federal statutes relative to this subject with certain annotations, are here given.