PATENT: WHAT CAN BE PATENTED?

Law tells you the general field of subject matter that can be patented and the conditions under which it may be obtained.

We are getting “governmental” and “legal” here. The language of the statute states that - any person who “invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent,” subject to the conditions and requirements of the law.

The definitions are ‘equally as clear.’

• The word “process” is defined by law as a process, act or method, and primarily includes industrial or technical processes. (Meaning the series of actions, operations or motions needed in the accomplishment of an end - i.e., a description of the steps from start to finish)

• The term“Machine” is what it is - a “machine.”

• “Manufacture” refers to articles which are made, and includes all manufactured articles.

• “Composition of Matter” relates to chemical compositions and may include mixtures of ingredients as well as new chemical compounds.

Clear as mud? What the law says is that practically everything that is made by “man” and the processes for making such products is covered.

Another requirement is that the subject of the invention must be “useful.” In other words, the invention has to have a useful purpose - and if it is a machine, composition or a process - the end result has to perform the intended purpose. Thus, if the intended result of the machine or process was to make a new (and useful) “gadget” - and the actual end result was a new “gizmo” - ... no go.

Courts and statutes have further defined the limits of patent protection. The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 excludes (even useful) inventions using nuclear material or atomic energy. Also, the laws of nature, physical phenomena and abstract ideas are not patentable subject matter.

And -- a patent can not be obtained on a mere idea or suggestion of an idea. While it is no longer required to have a working model of a machine or manufacture (or process or composition), a complete description of the invention and how it will work is required.

So that is why you pay the bucks to make sure your idea works - and pay the bucks to have a qualified person (read attorney or agent) to describe your idea in language that is understood (and required) by the USPTO. If you can’t convince the examiner that your invention is NEW - USEFUL - PERFORMS IT’S INTENDED PURPOSE - AND FITS THE DEFINITION OF A process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof - you go home with no cigar.

For more information you can go here to find what you can patent and what you can't