Each patent has a number of dates that can impact a patent’s role in a Study. For the Study patent, the dates dictate the timeframe of the Study and the range of dates that are available as prior art. For a submission, the dates determine whether the patent is eligible to be submitted.

When an inventor is interested in protecting their invention through the use of a patent, they are required to file a patent application to the patent office of their jurisdiction.  The application includes a description of the technology and related information to support the patent. 

Each patent contains a technical description which is confirmed by a patent examiner to be both non-obvious and novel.