When an inventor wishes to become the sole rights bearer of a particular invention, he or she will normally seek an intellectual patent. Patents are granted to the original inventor so that he or she may prevent others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing his or her creation. In order to be eligible to receive a patent, an invention must be a genuinely new creation. It cannot have been described in publication anywhere around the world previously, nor known about or used by another in the United States before the patent seeker submitted his or her application. Three general types of patents exist: utility, design, and plant. Utility patents protect an actual manufactured invention. Design patents protect just the schematic design of an invention - not the physical invention itself. Plant patents are provided for those that invent or discover, and are able to asexually reproduce, a new type of plant.