A patent is a protective right given to inventors by the federal government. Under patent law, inventors receive exclusive rights to their invention for a limited period of time. To obtain a patent, inventors provide information about their PRODUCT to the government. Because individual governments give patents, an inventor seeking a patent will need to decide whether to seek a patent only in their home country or in other countries around the world. Patent laws vary among nations. For example, some developing countries traditionally refuse to grant patents on pharmaceuticals. U.S. nationals receive tens of thousands of patents in other countries, and over half of the patents issued in the United States are given to residents of foreign countries. In many countries, patent practice is a specialized branch of law. In the United States, the U.S. Patent Office issues patents. U.S. patents grant the inventor exclusive rights to the product for 20 years from the date of application. (U.S. law used to give a 17-year patent from the date the patent was granted, but in the 1990s the United States changed its patent laws in order to comply with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade [GATT].) The patent allows the patent holder (patentee) to exclude everyone from making, using, or selling the patented invention without the permission of the patentee. Unlike many countries, the United States grants patents to the “first to invent” not the “first to file.” Some countries issue patents upon registration, without review of the application. Other countries, including the United States, issue patents after careful examination of the inventor’s patent request. A patent can be sought for a process, machine, manufacturing method, composition of matter, improvement of any of these, ornamental design, and plant produced by asexual reproduction. Naturally occurring things such as wild plants, abstract ideas, scientific laws, and other mental laws are not patentable. To receive a patent in the United States, the inventor must demonstrate that the inventions are novel, useful, and nonobvious. In 1998, more than 150,000 patents were issued, a 33 percent increase over the year before. Much of the growth is attributable to U.S. technology industries, including computer-software and business-methods patents. A patent provides a short-term legal MONOPOLY for the inventor, but often competitors find noninfringing ways to create similar products. When seeking a patent, inventors must disclose valuable information about their product. This information is available to the public and is often used by competitors in creating new and improved versions of the original product. Some inventors, particularly those of technically sophisticated products, choose not to seek patents, hoping others will not easily copy their KNOW-HOW. Challenges to a patentee’s rights are called patent infringement litigation. Patentees often seek INJUNCTIONS and DAMAGES against competitors infringing on their rights. U.S. patent holders against foreign-made patentinfringing goods often seek exclusion orders, which are often issued by the INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION and enforced by the U.S. CUSTOMS SERVICE.