What Inventions Are Patentable?
When deciding whether an invention is patentable or not, there are five requirements that must be satisfied. These requirements were laid down by Congress, so they can always change depending on the most recent Supreme Court ruling. The first four patentability requirements have to do with the invention itself, while the last requirement is based on how you write your patent submission. The fifth requirement is the reason why most people hire a patent attorney when submitting a patent.
The first requirement pertains to whether or not your invention is able to be protected by a patent. The original law says that anything made by man can be patented; however, there are things that the Supreme Court has deemed unable to be patented. The three categories that have been placed off limits to patents are laws of nature, abstract ideas, and natural phenomena. Although these categories have been ordered to be off limits, the USPTO has tried to push the limits and make new standards for patentable subject matter. One of these includes trying to patent business methods; however, the Supreme Court has ruled that they must involve a computer to be patented.
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.
The third requirement, the novelty requirement, prompts the inventor to show that their invention is new in some way. An invention will fail this requirement if it is identical to a reference that has been previously made to your invention. In other words, if your patent would infringe on an existing patent, then it doesn’t pass this requirement. If the reference is a newspaper or some other form you have to ask: if the newspaper was issued a patent, would your new patent infringe?
In order for your invention to pass the fourth requirement, it must be unobvious. 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 unobvious. 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 written description requirement is different from the other tests because it has to do with filling out the patent instead of the invention itself. This final requirement requires that an invention be described so that others will be able to make, use and understand the invention. There are three requirements in order to go about this. First, the enablement requirement says the inventor must describe their invention in a way where other people can make and use the invention. The best mode requirement requires that an inventor describes the way they prefer to carry out their invention’s functions. The written description requirement doesn’t have strict guidelines, and no one is exactly sure what it calls for; therefore, in order to satisfy it, it is easiest to say you just need to describe your invention in as much depth as possible.
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