The three main US patent types are utility patents (how something works), design patents (how something looks) and plant patents (new plant varieties), with utility patents being by far the most common and commercially valuable. Other countries carve things up differently: Europe protects appearance through registered designs rather than design patents, plant varieties through a separate rights system, and countries like Germany and China add utility models as a faster, shorter-term option. Provisional and non-provisional applications are US filing formats within the utility category, not separate patent types.
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