What Is Patentable?

What makes an invention Patentable?

Patent Criteria

A patentable invention meets rigorous criteria. Those criteria include:

  • Being a process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or an improvement to one of those; a design; or a plant
  • New or novel
  • Useful
  • Not described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public
  • Not obvious by its differences with other older technology

Being not obvious often challenges many inventions while software faces a challenge if it is a process.

Types of Patents

An inventor may seek a patent of certain kinds. Those kinds include:

  • Utility patent for process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or an improvement to any
  • Design patent for the surface appearance and ornamentation for a thing
  • Plant patent for asexually reproduced plants such as rose grafts

Each kind of patent application has its own stringent requirements.

  • Set by statute and legal cases
  • Must have a written description of the invention and of the manner and process of making and using it