What Inventions Are Patentable?
Congress has laid down a set of requirements that define whether or not a invention can receive a patent. There are five requirements, and they are constantly changing depending on the latest Supreme Court ruling. The invention itself has to pass the first four patenetability requirements, but the last requirement is based on how you write your patent submission and is the main reason why people hire a patent attorney.
The first requirement is a patentable subject matter. Originally, everything was patentable; however, the Supreme Court has made limitations on this original rule. Three categories have been ruled off limits to inventions. These three categories are laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas. Like all things in law, these limits have been pushed. The USPTO has tried to make new standards for patentable subject matter, including the addition of business methods; however, the Supreme Court requires that the business method have a computer involved.
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.
In order for your invention to pass the fourth requirement, it must not be obvious. Your invention would be obvious if someone knowledgeable about the field combined a few past references and came to your invention. Therefore, an invention cannot consist of a simple combination of prior inventions; however, if the addition of the inventions isn’t considered already known, then it will be considered not obvious. This is why this requirement can be very tricky. So, in short, if an invention contains only obvious differences from 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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