FAQs – Patents
What is "Patentable"?
To be patentable, an invention must fall within as least one of the following categories:
- An article of manufacture;
- A machine;
- A process;
- A composition of matter (a chemical compound);
- An improvement of any of the above; or
- A ornamental design of an article of manufacture; or
- An asexually reproduced plant.
Additionally, patentable inventions must be:
- New;
- Useful; and
- Non-obvious.
Abstract ideas and scientific principles cannot be patented. They must first be embodied in a device or process that falls into one of the above classes. Software can be patented if it can be described as an embodiment of such a device or process.
An invention is “new" unless:
- It was first invented by someone else;
- It was first described in a publication anywhere in the world more than one year before a patent application was filed; or
- It was put in public use or on sale in the United States more than one year before a patent application was filed.
An invention is “useful” if it accomplishes its intended purpose-that is, if it works. Most inventions (except perpetual motion machines!) pass this test without difficulty.
An invention is “non-obvious” if the differences between the invention and the earlier work of others are such that the invention would not have been obvious to a person with ordinary skill in the art (“art” means the technology to which the invention relates).