In patent law, industrial applicability or industrial application is a patentability requirement according to which a patent can only be granted for an invention which is susceptible of industrial application, i.e. for an invention which can be made or used in some kind of industry. In this context, the concept of "industry" is far-reaching: it includes indeed agriculture for instance. An example of invention which would not be susceptible of industrial application is "a method of contraception [...] to be applied in the private and personal sphere of a human being" (T 74/93 [1] (http://legal.european-patent-office.org/dg3/biblio/t930074ep1.htm)) The patentability comprises the conditions that must be met for an invention to be granted a patent, and by extension it also refers to the substantive conditions that must be met for a patent to be held valid. ... Novelty is a patentability test, according to which an invention is not patentable if it was already known before the date of filing, or before the date of priority if a priority is claimed, of the patent application. ... Non-obviousness is a patentability test, in US patent law. ... Utility (patent) or industrial applicability is a patentability test. ... Prior art or state of the art is all information that has been disclosed to the public in any form before a given date. ... A person having ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA) or the person skilled in the art is a legal fiction defined in the Patent Act of the United States, and similarly by other patent laws in the world. ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a government to an inventor or applicant for a limited amount of time (normally maximum 20 years from the filing date, depending on extension). ... Law (a loanword from Danish- Norwegian lov), in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments for those who do not follow... The patentability comprises the conditions that must be met for an invention to be granted a patent, and by extension it also refers to the substantive conditions that must be met for a patent to be held valid. ... In music, an invention is a short composition with two or three part counterpoint. ... An industry is generally any grouping of businesses that share a common method of generating profits, such as the movie industry, the automobile industry, or the cattle industry. It is also used specifically to refer to an area of economic production focused on manufacturing which involves large amounts of upfront... Farming, ploughing rice paddy, in Indonesia Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and other desired products by cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). ... Birth control is the practice of preventing or reducing the probability of pregnancy without abstaining from sexual intercourse; the term is also sometimes used to include abortion, the ending of an unwanted pregnancy, or abstinence. ... Privacy is the ability of a person to control the availability of information about and exposure of him- or herself. ... Human beings are defined variously in biological, spiritual, and cultural terms, or in combinations thereof. ... Decisions of the first instances of the European Patent Office (EPO) can be appealed, i. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003) Events Media:January January 1 - Czechoslovakia divides. ...

The industrial application requirement is closely related to the requirement of sufficiency of disclosure, i.e. the fact that a "patent application must disclose the invention in a manner sufficiently clear and complete for it to be carried out by a person skilled in the art" (see also: reduction to practice, especially in US patent law). A person having ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA) or the person skilled in the art is a legal fiction defined in the Patent Act of the United States, and similarly by other patent laws in the world. ...

The utility is a more or less corresponding requirement in US patent law, but different however. Utility (patent) or industrial applicability is a patentability test. ...

External links

• Article 57 (http://www.european-patent-office.org/legal/epc/e/ar57.html#A57) of the European Patent Convention
• Article 33 (http://www.wipo.int/pct/en/texts/articles/a33.htm) of the Patent Cooperation Treaty, see in particular paragraph (4).
• Article 1 (http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/paris/trtdocs_wo020.html#P71_4054) of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, see in particular paragraph (3) for guidances as to how the word "industry" should be interpreted.