When deciding whether an invention is patentable or not, there are five requirements that must be satisfied. These requirements were laid down by Congress, so they can always change depending on the most recent Supreme Court ruling. The first four patentability requirements have to do with the invention itself, while the last requirement is based on how you write your patent submission. The fifth requirement is the reason why most people hire a patent attorney when submitting a patent.
The first requirement pertains to whether or not your invention is able to be protected by a patent. The original law says that anything made by man can be patented; however, there are things that the Supreme Court has deemed unable to be patented. The three categories that have been placed off limits to patents are laws of nature, abstract ideas, and natural phenomena. Although these categories have been ordered to be off limits, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has tried to push the limits and make new standards for patentable subject matter. One of these includes trying to patent business methods; however, the Supreme Court has ruled that they must involve a computer to be patented.
The second requirement requires that an invention is useful in some way. The invention only needs to be partially useful to pass this requirement; it will only fail if it is totally incapable of achieving a useful result. This is a very easy requirement to pass, but it can be failed if you aren’t able to identify why your invention is useful or you don’t include enough information to show why your invention is useful. Also, your claim for why your invention is useful won’t be credible if the logic is flawed or the facts are inconsistent with the logic.
In order to pass the third requirement, an invention must prove to be new in some way. Prior references to your invention play a big part in this requirement because if your invention is identical to any prior art, then it will not receive a patent. These prior references can include previous patents or anything else that mentions your invention. In other words, if a reference such as a newspaper were to get a patent, your invention can’t infringe on it.
If someone knowledgeable about the field of your invention was able to combine a few past references and come to your invention, then it may not pass the fourth requirement. In order to pass the fourth requirement, your invention must be not obvious. This is a tricky requirement because it is an opinion on some level. You are allowed to add past inventions together; however, if such addition would be obvious to anyone in that field, then you can’t receieve a patent. basically, if an invention only contains obvious differences from the prior art, then it will fail this requirement.
The last test is different because it has to do with how you write the patent instead of the invention itself. In order to pass this requirement, the invention must be explained so someone could understand, make and use the invention. There are three parts to the explanation. The enablement requirement requires that the invention is described so others can use and make it. Second, the best mode requirement says there must be a preferred way to carry out the invention described in the patent. The third requirement – the written description requirement – has shady guidelines, so describing your invention in great detail is the best to fulfill this requirement.
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