Patent Requirements

Inventions or discoveries must be patentable in order to be protected.

To be patentable, an invention or discovery must be:
- Novel
- Useful
- & Non-obvious

Novel

novel means that it must be a new invention or discovery
To be considered new, it must be different from the prior art
- public knowledge about an invention that existed before the date upon which a patent application is filed
- invention or discovery that merely contains prior art is not new and is not patentable
USPTO:
- looks at whether the invention was used in the United States or other countries before the date of the patent application
- reviews whether the invention was patented or published in other countries
it is not new if:
- people know about the invention or discovery in other places
limited exception
- allows a 1-year grace period for inventions made available to the public
- means that an inventor must file for a patent within 1 year of announcing the invention to the public
  - may want to announce invention before applying for patent to see if there is commercial interest
- will not consider a patent application if it is submitted more than 1 year after the invention is announced
- risky because:
  - another person might see the invention and build upon it
  - if the person files a patent, then the first person may not be able to do so
  - but the second person’s patent also contains prior art
  - the rules for determining priority are tricky, so attorneys are very useful

also called utility
meet this requirement by showing that the invention or discovery is beneficial to society
must show that the invention actually works

Obvious inventions or discoveries are not patentable
Courts have recognized that an invention that seems obvious after it is created may meet the non-obvious requirement
USPTO looks at prior art and how an invention is used to determine if it is non-obvious
An invention is non-obvious if:
- a person with ordinary skill in the kind of technology used in the invention would not have discovered or invented it
- must be sufficiently different from the prior art
reviews these elements based on the date of the inventor’s patent application