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Patentability
Within the context of a national or multilateral body of law, an invention is patentable if it meets the relevant legal conditions to be granted a patent. By extension, patentability also refers to the substantive conditions that must be met for a patent to be held valid. Requirements The patent laws usually require that, for an invention to be patentable, it must be: * Patentable subject matter, i.e., a kind of subject-matter eligible for patent protection * Novel (i.e. at least some aspect of it must be new) * Non-obvious (in United States patent law) or involve an inventive step (in European patent law) * Useful (in U.S. patent law) or be susceptible of industrial application (in European patent law) Usually the term "''patentability''" only refers to "substantive" conditions, and does not refer to formal conditions such as the " sufficiency of disclosure", the "unity of invention" or the " best mode requirement". Judging patentability is one aspect of the official ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patentable Subject Matter
Patentable, statutory or patent-eligible subject matter is subject matter which is susceptible of patent protection. The laws or patent practices of many countries provide that certain subject-matter is excluded from patentability, even if the invention is novel and non-obvious. Together with criteria such as novelty, inventive step or nonobviousness, utility, and industrial applicability, which differ from country to country, the question of whether a particular subject matter is patentable is one of the substantive requirements for patentability. Legislations The subject-matter which is regarded as patentable as a matter of policy, and correspondingly the subject-matter which is excluded from patentability as a matter of policy, depends on the national legislation or international treaty. Canada According to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) patents may only be granted for physical embodiments of an idea, or a process that results in something that is tang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patentability Opinion
This is a list of legal terms relating to patents. A patent is not a right to practice or use the invention, but a territorial right to exclude others from commercially exploiting the invention, granted to an inventor or his successor in rights in exchange to a public disclosure of the invention. A Abandonment The reply of an applicant to an office action must be made within a prescribed time limit. If no reply is received within the time period, the application may be considered, depending on the jurisdiction, as abandoned or deemed to be withdrawn, and, therefore, no longer pending. Allowance A patent is "allowed" when the patent office examiners have determined that the patent application meets the necessary criteria of novelty, non-obviousness, feasibility, and usefulness. The applicants are notified of this certification, and that the patent office is ready to grant the patent once certain fees are paid and paperwork filed by the inventors or assignees. The term is used i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Filing Date
This is a list of legal terms relating to patents. A patent is not a right to practice or use the invention, but a territorial right to exclude others from commercially exploiting the invention, granted to an inventor or his successor in rights in exchange to a public disclosure of the invention. A Abandonment The reply of an applicant to an office action must be made within a prescribed time limit. If no reply is received within the time period, the application may be considered, depending on the jurisdiction, as abandoned or deemed to be withdrawn, and, therefore, no longer pending. Allowance A patent is "allowed" when the patent office examiners have determined that the patent application meets the necessary criteria of novelty, non-obviousness, feasibility, and usefulness. The applicants are notified of this certification, and that the patent office is ready to grant the patent once certain fees are paid and paperwork filed by the inventors or assignees. The term is used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Utility (patent)
In United States patent law, utility is a patentability requirement. As provided by , an invention is "useful" if it provides some identifiable benefit and is capable of use and "useless" otherwise. The majority of inventions are usually not challenged as lacking utility, but the doctrine prevents the patenting of fantastic or hypothetical devices such as perpetual motion machines. The patent examiners guidelines require that a patent application expresses a specific, credible, and substantial utility. Rejection by an examiner usually requires documentary evidence establishing a ''prima facie'' showing that there is no specific, substantial, and credible utility. European patent law does not consider utility as a patentability criterion. Instead, it requires that to be patentable an invention must have industrial applicability. Utility criteria In considering the requirement of utility for patents, there are three main factors to review: operability of the invention, a bene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prior Art
Prior art (also known as state of the art or background art) is a concept in patent law used to determine the patentability of an invention, in particular whether an invention meets the novelty and the inventive step or non-obviousness criteria for patentability. In most systems of patent law, prior art is generally defined as anything that is made available, or disclosed, to the public that might be relevant to a patent's claim before the effective filing date of a patent application for an invention. However, notable differences exist in how prior art is specifically defined under different national, regional, and international patent systems. The prior art is evaluated by patent offices as part of the patent granting process in what is called “substantive examination” of a patent application in order to determine whether an invention claimed in the patent application meets the novelty and inventive step or non-obviousness criteria for patentability. It may also be cons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patent Examiner
A patent examiner (or, historically, a patent clerk) is an employee, usually a civil servant with a scientific or engineering background, working at a patent office. Major employers of patent examiners are the European Patent Office (EPO), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), and other patent offices around the world. Duties Patent examiners review patent applications to determine whether the invention(s) claimed in each of them should be granted a patent or whether the application should instead be refused. One of the most important tasks of a patent examiner is to review the disclosure in the application and to compare it to the prior art. This involves reading and understanding a patent application, searching the prior art (including prior patent applications and patents, scientific literature databases, etc.) to determine what contribution the invention makes over the prior art, and issuing office actions to explain to the ap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reexamination
In United States patent law, a reexamination is a process whereby anyone—third party or inventor—can have a U.S. patent reexamined by a patent examiner to verify that the subject matter it claims is patentable. To have a patent reexamined, an interested party must submit prior art, in the form of patents or printed publications, that raises a "substantial new question of patentability". The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act makes substantial changes to the U.S. patent system, including new mechanisms for challenging patents at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. One of the new mechanisms is a post-grant review proceeding, which will provide patent challengers expanded bases on which to attack patents. Process A request for a reexamination can be filed by anyone at any time during the period of enforceability of a patent. To request a reexamination, one must submit a "request for reexamination" which includes (1) a statement pointing out each "substantial new question of p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opposition Procedure Before The European Patent Office
The opposition procedure before the European Patent Office (EPO) is a post-grant, contentious, ''inter partes'', administrative procedure intended to allow any European patent to be centrally opposed. European patents granted by the EPO under the European Patent Convention (EPC) may be opposed by any person from the public (no commercial or other interest whatsoever need be shown). This happens often when some prior art was not found during the grant procedure, but was only known by third parties. An opposition can only be based on a limited number of grounds,"The function of Article 100 EPC is to provide, within the framework of the EPC, a limited number of legal bases, ie a limited number of objections on which an opposition can be based." iDecision G 1/95 (19 July 1996) reasons 4.1. i.e. on the grounds that the subject-matter of the patent is not patentable, that the invention is insufficiently disclosed, or that the content of the patent extends beyond the content of the app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novelty (patent)
Novelty is a requirement for a patent claim to be patentable. An invention is not new and therefore not patentable if it was known to the public before the filing date of the patent application, or before its date of priority if the applicant claims priority of an earlier patent application. The purpose of the novelty requirement is to prevent prior art from being patented again.: "I. Patentability; C. Novelty; 1. General" ("An invention can be patented only if it is new. An invention is considered to be new if it does not form part of the state of the art. The purpose of Art. 54(1) EPC is to prevent the state of the art being patented again (T 12/81, OJ 1982, 296; T 198/84, OJ 1985, 209).") Definition Novelty is requirement for a patent claim to be patentable. In contrast, if an invention was known to the public before filing a patent application, or before its date of priority, if the priority of an earlier patent application is claimed, the invention is not considere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inventive Step And Non-obviousness
The inventive step and non-obviousness reflect a general patentability requirement present in most patent laws, according to which an invention should be sufficiently inventive—i.e., non-obvious—in order to be patented. In other words, " henonobviousness principle asks whether the invention is an adequate distance beyond or above the state of the art". The expression "inventive step" is predominantly used in Europe, while the expression "non-obviousness" is predominantly used in United States patent law. The expression "inventiveness" is sometimes used as well. Although the basic principle is roughly the same, the assessment of the inventive step and non-obviousness varies from one country to another. For instance, the practice of the European Patent Office (EPO) differs from the practice in the United Kingdom. Rationale The purpose of the inventive step, or non-obviousness, requirement is to avoid granting patents for inventions which only follow from "normal product d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inventor (patent)
In patent law, an inventor is the person, or persons in United States patent law, who contribute to the claims of a patentable invention. In some patent law frameworks, however, such as in the European Patent Convention (EPC) and its case law, no explicit, accurate definition of who exactly is an inventor is provided. The definition may slightly vary from one European country to another. Inventorship is generally not considered to be a patentability criterion under European patent law. Under U.S. case law, an inventor is the one with "intellectual domination" over the inventive process, and not merely one who assists in its reduction to practice. Since inventorship relates to the claims in a patent application, knowing who an inventor is under the patent law is sometimes difficult. In fact, inventorship can change during the prosecution of a patent application as claims are deleted or amended. "Joint inventors", or "co-inventors", exist when a patentable invention is the resu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Patent Convention
The European Patent Convention (EPC), also known as the Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, is a multilateral treaty instituting the European Patent Organisation and providing an autonomous legal system according to which European patents are granted. The term ''European patent'' is used to refer to patents granted under the European Patent Convention. However, a European patent is not a unitary right, but a group of essentially independent nationally enforceable, nationally revocable patents, subject to central revocation or narrowing as a group pursuant to two types of unified, post-grant procedures: a time-limited opposition procedure, which can be initiated by any person except the patent proprietor, and limitation and revocation procedures, which can be initiated by the patent proprietor only. The EPC provides a legal framework for the granting of European patents, via a single, harmonised procedure before the European Patent Office (EPO). A si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
