How long is the duration of patent right for an invention according to the law?

根据这个法律．发明专利权的期限是多久？

Over the past decade, thousands of patents have been granted for what are called business methods.

在过去的十年中，成千上万的商业方法被授予了专利权。

Even more processes are never patented at all but kept as secret processes.

更多的工艺过程根本就不会取得专利权，而是作为秘方保存着。

Most genetically modified seeds are patented, this means farmers must purchase them after each planting.

大多数转基因种子都有专利权，因此农民们每次种植后都必须再次购买。

Look at patents. A patent grants an inventor exclusive right to profit from a specific product or process.

以专利为例。专利权授予发明者从特定产品或过程中获取利润的专有权。

Some observers think an anti-Myriad ruling would have little practical effect.

一些观察员认为反对麦利亚德公司专利权的裁决将不会产生太大的影响。

Any genes of interest could thus be examined for worrisome mutations, probably without infringing any patents.

从此不用侵犯任何专利权，就可检测基因突变。

The firm's patents expire in 2015, and technology has moved on.

该公司的专利权有效期截止到2015年，而到那时，生物术早已有极大的进步。

It's how they determine who wins these situations.

他们用来认定谁拿到专利权的依据。

He boldly sued the Western Union in 1878 for infringement of the Bell patents.

1878 年， 他大胆地起诉西联汇款侵犯贝尔的专利权。

On April 15th they were presented with a particularly testing puzzler: should the law allow people to patent human genes?

4月15日，法官们遇到一个相当棘手的案件：法律是否允许取得类基因的专利权。

But also it has several big drugs which are coming off patent in coming years, and they're going to lose exclusivity.

但它也有几种大药在未来几年将失去专利权，它们将失去独占权。

Rather than patenting every conceivable variant, the company claims jurisdiction over isolated DNA sequences, 15 base pairs long, that match short parts of the genes.

他们不是对每一有可能得到的基因突变体持有专利权，而是对一段分离到的基因序列持有专利权，这段基因序列含有15个碱基对。

This is only for one of the patent rights. For invention the duration of protection is even shorter, only for 5 years protection.

只有一种专利权保护期限是15年，发明专利保护期限是15年。至于实用新型和外观设计专利，保护期更短，只有5年。

Yet a great many processes depending on such research are sought for with complete secrecy until the stage at which patents can be taken out.

然而，依赖这种研究的很多工艺程序是在完全保密的情况下进行的，直到可以取得专利权的阶段为止。

Many of the drugs needed are no longer covered by patents, but tariffs, poor distribution and high mark-ups still make them costly and scarce.

而很多治疗所需的药品不再受制于专利权，而是关税，药品分布不合理，涨价幅度高仍然造成了药价高昂与药品缺乏。

Bell had arrived at the office a few hours before Elisha Gray, and therefore the government gave Alexander Graham Bell the patent.

贝尔比以利沙·格雷早几个小时到达办公室，因此政府授予了亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔专利权。

Later, more established companies raced to add such patents to their files, if only as a defensive move against rivals that might beat them to the punch.

后来，更多的知名公司竞相添加这样的专利权，希望这样的防御性的行为可以先下手为强。

Yale's Krystal, NIH's Zarate, and Sinai's Charney, all of whom are on the patent on Charney's wall, will collect royalties based on the drug's sales.

耶鲁大的瑞斯，美国国家卫生研究院的萨拉特和西奈山伊坎院的查尼，他们的名字都列在查尼办公室那面墙上所挂的专利证书之中，他们将根据药物的销售情况收取专利权税。

Meanwhile, the country's biggest car maker, Volvo, invented the industry-changing 3-point safety belt, giving up the patent so any automaker could use it in their vehicles.

与此同时，瑞典最大的汽车制造商沃尔沃发明了足以改变产业的三点式安全带，并放弃了专利权，因此所有的汽车制造商都可以加装这种安全带。