Does my invention need to work or demonstrate commercial success in order to be awarded a patent ?
The standard for obtaining a patent on an invention is that it be enabling, i.e., a person skilled in the art can reproduce the invention without due experimentation. If so, the invention is considered to have been constructively reduced to practice as opposed to actual reduction to practice which involved building a prototype of the apparatus or demonstrating the process. The reason that the Patent Office does not require an actual reduction to practice is that this is often simply impractical. Nevertheless, the lack of actual reduction to practice puts the inventor at a disadvantage in some situations if an interference* is declared. While interference practice is complicated, the inventor who shows diligence in actually reducing the invention to practice receives priority over the inventor who did not even if the other inventor filed earlier (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/2100_2138_01.htm#sect2138.01). * An interference takes place if two different inventors wo
