In United States patent law, utility is a patentability requirement. Today, the utility requirement is the lowest bar and is easily met. Largely utility is used to prevent the patenting of inoperative devices such as perpetual motion machines. Utility is required by the patent law: 35 U.S.C. 101, "inventions patentable", and 35 U.S.C. 112, "specification". 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. ... 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. ... 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. ... The United States patent law is a first-to-invent patent legal framework in contrast to all other national patent laws. ... 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. ... This article or section should include material from Parallel Path See also Perpetuum mobile as a musical term Perpetual motion machines (the Latin term perpetuum mobile is not uncommon) are a class of hypothetical machines which would produce useful energy in a way science cannot explain (yet). ... An invention an object, patent, process, or technique which displays an element of novelty. ...

There are three types of utility:

1. General utility is the requirement of functionality.
2. Specific utility is the requirement that the invention actually perform the function.
3. Moral, or beneficial, utility requires that the invention not "poison, promote debauchery, facilitate private assassination".^[1]

Moral utility is probably no longer a bar. The patent office regularly grants patents for sex toys and gambling. A sex toy is a term for any object or device that is primarily used in facilitating human sexual pleasure. ... Gambling has had many different meanings depending on the cultural and historical context in which it is used. ...

The patent examiners guidelines require that a patent application express a specific, credible, and substantial utility. Rejection by an examiner usually requires documentary evidence establishing a prima facie showing of no specific and substantial credible utility. 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. ... Look up prima facie in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

European patent law does not test utility. Instead, it requires that to be patentable an invention must have industrial applicability. 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. ... 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. ...

See also

• Sufficiency of disclosure
• Diamond v. Diehr
• Reduction to practice
• State Street decision
• Utility model

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. ... 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. ... 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. ... Sufficiency of disclosure refers to the legal requirement that the description of an invention in a patent contain specific information about the invention. ... Holding A machine controlled by a computer program was patentable. ... The reduction to practice is a United States patent law concept. ... The decision of July 23, 1998 of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in State Street Bank & Trust Company v. ... A utility model is an intellectual property right to protect inventions. ...

External links

• 35 U.S.C. §101 Inventions patentable (introducing the term "useful")
• 2107 Guidelines of Examination
• Utility Patents & Non-provisional Patent Applications

Notes

1. ↑  Lowell v. Lewis, 15 F. Cas. 1018, 1019 (C.C.D. Mass. 1817)