Within the context of a national or multilateral body of law, an invention is patentable if it meets the relevant legal conditions to be granted a patent. By extension, patentability also refers to the substantive conditions that must be met for a patent to be held valid. In patent law, an inventor is the person, or persons in United States patent law, who contribute to the claims of a patentable invention. ... Within the context of a national or multilateral body of law, an invention is patentable or, in other words, it satisfies the patentability requirements if it meets the legal conditions to be granted a patent. ... 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. ... The inventive step and non-obviousness reflect a same general patentability requirement present in most patent laws, according to which an invention should be sufficiently inventive, i. ... Utility (patent) or industrial applicability is a patentability test. ... 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. ... In most patent laws, prior art or state of the art (the latter term sometimes has other meanings as well) is all information that has been made available to the public in any form before a given date. ... The person having ordinary skill in the art (often abbreviated PHOSITA in the United States), the person skilled in the art or the man skilled in the art is a legal fiction found in many patent laws throughout the world. ... A state is a set of institutions that possesses the exclusive legitimate authority to make the rules that govern the people in one or more societies, having internal and external sovereignty over a definite territory. ... Multilateralism is an international relations term that refers to multiple countries working in concert. ... // Balancing scales are symbolic of how law mediates peoples interests For other senses of this word, see Law (disambiguation). ... An invention an object, patent, process, or technique which displays an element of novelty. ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a patentee (the inventor or assignee) for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which...

Requirements

The patent laws usually require that, in order for an invention to be patentable, it must A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a patentee (the inventor or assignee) for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which... The history of patents and patent laws is generally considered to have started in Italy with a Venetian Statute of 1474. ... Patents are legal instruments intended for controlling technology-driven socio-economic progress and providing a general benefit for the society as a whole. ... Patent prosecution describes the interaction between an Applicant, or their representative, and a patent office with regard to a patent, or an application for a patent. ... A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for the invention described and claimed by that application. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... It has been suggested that Licensing (strategic alliance) be merged into this article or section. ... European patent law covers a wide range of legislations including national patent laws, the Strasbourg Convention of 1963, the European Patent Convention of 1973, and a number of European Union directives and regulations. ... Japanese patent law is referred to as Tokkyo hou in Japanese. ... The United States patent law is a first-to-invent patent legal framework in contrast to all other national patent laws. ... This is a list of legal concepts relating to patents, including special types of patents and patent applications. ...

• be of patentable subject matter, ie a kind of subject-matter that is eligible for patent protection,
• be novel (i.e. at least some aspect of it must be new),
• be non-obvious (in United States patent law) or involve an inventive step (in European patent law);
• be useful (in U.S. patent law) or be susceptible of industrial application (in European patent law).

Usually the term "patentability" only refers to "substantive" conditions, and does not refer to formal conditions such as the "sufficiency of disclosure", the "unity of invention" or the "best mode requirement". Within the context of a national or multilateral body of law, an invention is patentable or, in other words, it satisfies the patentability requirements if it meets the legal conditions to be granted a patent. ... 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. ... The inventive step and non-obviousness reflect a same general patentability requirement present in most patent laws, according to which an invention should be sufficiently inventive, i. ... The United States patent law is a first-to-invent patent legal framework in contrast to all other national patent laws. ... The inventive step and non-obviousness reflect a same general patentability requirement present in most patent laws, according to which an invention should be sufficiently inventive, i. ... European patent law covers a wide range of legislations including national patent laws, the Strasbourg Convention of 1963, the European Patent Convention of 1973, and a number of European Union directives and regulations. ... Utility (patent) or industrial applicability is a patentability test. ... 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. ... Sufficiency of disclosure refers to the legal requirement that the description of an invention in a patent contain specific information about the invention. ... In most patent laws, unity of invention is a formal administrative requirement that must be met by a patent application in order to proceed to grant. ... Sufficiency of disclosure refers to the legal requirement that the description of an invention in a patent contain specific information about the invention. ...

Judging patentability is one aspect of the official examination of a patent application performed by a patent examiner. Although the grant of a patent creates a presumption that the claimed invention is valid, errors in the granting procedure may occur and previously unconsidered prior art may be brought to light only after the patent was granted, but under higher scrutiny based on the presumption of validity. A patent application is a request filed before a patent office in which an applicant applies for a patent for an invention. ... A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for the invention described and claimed by that application. ... A patent clerk or patent examiner is an employee, usually a civil servant, working within a patent office and whose work is to examine patent applications as to whether they deserve a patent. ... Patent claims are usually in the form of a series of numbered expressions, or more precisely noun phrases, following the description of the invention in a patent or patent application, and define, in technical terms, the extent of the protection conferred by a patent or by a patent application. ... In most patent laws, prior art or state of the art (the latter term sometimes has other meanings as well) is all information that has been made available to the public in any form before a given date. ...

Prior to filing a patent application, inventors sometimes obtain a patentability opinion from a patent agent or patent attorney regarding whether an invention satisfies the substantive conditions of patentability. The filing date of a patent application is the date the patent application was filed in one or more patent offices. ... An inventor is a person who creates new inventions, typically technical devices such as mechanical, electrical or software devices or methods. ... A patent attorney is an attorney who has the specialized qualifications necessary for representing clients in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice, such as filing an opposition. ... A patent attorney is an attorney who has the specialized qualifications necessary for representing clients in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice, such as filing an opposition. ...

Opposition and reexamination

Many national and regional patent offices provide procedures for reconsidering whether or not a given patent is valid after grant. Under the European Patent Convention, any person can file an opposition. In the United States, members of the public can initiate reexamination proceedings. Japan provides similar options as well. The Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, commonly known as the European Patent Convention (EPC), is a multilateral treaty instituting the European Patent Organisation and providing an autonomous legal system according to which European patents are granted. ... The opposition procedure before the European Patent Office (EPO) is a post-grant, contentious, inter partes, administrative procedure intended to allow any European patent to be centrally opposed if it was allegedly wrongly granted. ... In United States patent law, a reexamination is a process whereby a third party or inventor can have their patent application reexamined by a patent examiner to verify that it is valid. ...

Members of the public can also initiate lawsuits in the courts of various nations to have patents declared invalid. It has been suggested that civil trial be merged into this article or section. ...

Infringement

The fact that an invention is patentable does not necessarily mean that that invention does not also infringe another patent. The first patent in a given area may have a broad claim covering the concept of the invention since there is no prior art in that area. Later, a specific implementation of that concept may be invented, which is patentable as it is not disclosed in the earlier patent, but that falls within the claim to the general concept. The later inventor must, therefore, obtain a licence from earlier proprietor to be able to exploit his invention. The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Within the context of a national or multilateral body of law, an invention is patentable if it meets the relevant legal conditions to be granted a patent. ...

Thomas Edison's thin carbon filament light bulb was a patentable improvement over the earlier patented Woodward and Evans thick carbon filament light bulb. Thomas Edison bought the Woodward patent for $US 5,000 before he began his development work so that Woodward would not be able to sue him for patent infringement after Edison became commercially successful. Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices which greatly influenced life in the 21st century. ... Patent application On July 24, 1874, five years before Thomas Edisons U.S. patent, two Canadians, Henry Woodward, a medical student from Toronto, Ontario, and his friend Mathew Evans, a hotelkeeper, patented the first incandescent lamp with an electric light bulb. ... Categories: Canadian people stubs | Canadian inventors ...

Legislations

United States

Under United States patent law, inventorship is also regarded as a patentability criterion. It is a constitutional requirement. Congress' ability to grant patents is authorized only for the inventor. This was confirmed by case law: "Inventorship is indeed relevant to patentability under 35 U.S.C. § 102(f), and patents have in the past been held unenforceable for failure to correctly name inventors in cases where the named inventors acted in bad faith or with deceptive intent."^[1] The United States patent law is a first-to-invent patent legal framework in contrast to all other national patent laws. ... In patent law, an inventor is the person, or persons in United States patent law, who contribute to the claims of a patentable invention. ... Type Bicameral Houses Senate House of Representatives President of the Senate Dick Cheney, R, since January 20, 2001 Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R, since January 6, 1999 Members 535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner Political groups (as of January 4, 2005 elections) Democratic Party Republican Party... Case law (precedential law) is the body of judge-made law and legal decisions that interprets prior case law, statutes and other legal authority -- including doctrinal writings by legal scholars such as the Corpus Juris Secundum, Halsburys Laws of England or the doctinal writings found in the Recueil Dalloz...

Details on patentability in the U.S. can be found in the Manual of Patent Examining Proceedure or MPEP. This is published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and is the reference manual used by both patent examiners and patent agents/attorneys. Chapter 2100, in particular, gives a comprehensive overview of the standards for patentability, a discussion of the related case law, and guidance on how to overcome an examiner's rejection of a given set of claims. The Manual for Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) is a manual for patent agents and patent examiners published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). ... PTO headquarters in Alexandria The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO or USPTO) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that provides patent and trademark protection to inventors and businesses for their inventions and corporate and product identification. ... A patent clerk or patent examiner is an employee, usually a civil servant, working within a patent office and whose work is to examine patent applications as to whether they deserve a patent. ...

In the United States, the patent grant is presumptive, e.g. a patent shall issue unless the patent statutes preclude the grant. In other words, the burden is on the Patent Office to prove why a patent should NOT be granted. ^[2]

Quotes

[The question whether there is a patentable invention] is as fugitive, impalpable, wayward, and vague a phantom as exists in the whole paraphernalia of legal concepts. It involves, or it should involve, as complete a reconstruction of the art that preceded it as is possible. The test of invention is the originality of the discovery, and discovery depends upon the mental act of conceiving the new combination, for substantially every invention is only a combination. Nothing is more illusory, as nothing is more common, than to assume that this can be measured objectively by the magnitude of the physical readjustments required. Courts never tire, or at least in earlier times they never did, of expatiating upon the freshness of insight which observes a little, but fruitful, change which had theretofore escaped detection by those engaged in the field. When all is said, we are called upon imaginatively to project this act of discovery against a hypostatized average practitioner, acquainted with all that has been published and all that has been publicly sold. If there be an issue more troublesome, or more apt for litigation than this, we are not aware of it. (...)

- US Judge Learned Hand in Harries v. Air King Prod. Co., 183 F.2d 158, 162 (2d Cir. 1950). [3]

Look up Paraphernalia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is in need of attention. ... The person having ordinary skill in the art (often abbreviated PHOSITA in the United States), the person skilled in the art or the man skilled in the art is a legal fiction found in many patent laws throughout the world. ... Judge Learned Hand, from the cover of Learned Hand: The Man and the Judge, by Gerald Gunther Billings Learned Hand (January 27, 1872 – August 18, 1961) — usually called simply Learned Hand — was a famed American judge and an avid supporter of free speech, though he is most remembered for applying... The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: District of Connecticut Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Districts of New York District of Vermont The Second Circuit hears argument at the Thurgood Marshall U...

See also

See List of patent legal concepts for articles on various legal aspects of patents, including special types of patents and patent applications. This is a list of legal concepts relating to patents, including special types of patents and patent applications. ...

• Idea-expression divide A copyright law concept often [erroneously] raised in the patent context.

In intellectual property law, the idea-expression divide is the principle which states that the function of the law is to protect the fixed expression or manifestation of an idea, rather than the fundamental concept or information which gives rise to the idea. ...

Footnotes

1. ↑  Board of Education ex rel Board of Trustees of Florida State University v. American Bioscience Inc, 67 USPQ 2d 1252 (Fed Cir 2003) [4]
2. ↑  A person shall be entitled to a patent unless... 35 USC 102

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, or simply the Federal Circuit, was founded in 1982 to combine similar federal cases to a specialized appellate court. ...

External links

• Patentability requirements in United States patent law, from the USPTO web site