The three main types of patents are: Utility Patents, Design Patents, and Method Patents. Utility patents are the most common types of applications submitted to the USPTO. Essentially, you can think of Utility Patents as being those things you can touch, see, and feel. Their patents cover the way in which they work, their composition, and assemblage. Examples include mousetraps, engines, and golf clubs. Another type of patent is the Process or Method Patent. This patent covers the various steps, methods, and processes taken in a sequence to create a specific and useful result. One of the more renowned types of Method Patents are the Business Method Patent. These patents can be generally defined by the fact they are not inventions that you can necessarily touch, see, and feel. Rounding out these Patent types is the Design Patent. Design Patents are unique inasmuch as they do not cover the way inventions work, what they are composed of, or how they are assembled. To the contrary, Design Patents specifically do not cover any sort of functional benefits whatsoever. Instead, as the name implies, they are used to protect novel and unique designs. These designs are purely ornamental in nature and can have no utility or functionat all.