How clever does an invention have to be before it can be patented in Europe?
Patents are granted for inventions in many areas of technology, both high-tech and low-tech. Outside Western Europe, there are substantial variations in the rules from country to country, but in Western Europe (including the United Kingdom) the rules are largely harmonised. In Western Europe, to be patentable an invention must: (i) be new, in the sense of not having been previously made available to the public by publication or use anywhere in the world; in legal terms, this is often expressed as a requirement for “novelty” over the “state of the art” or “prior art” (i.e. everything previously made available); (ii) involve an inventive step, in the sense of not being obvious to a person skilled in the relevant art (i.e. the relevant technological field); (iii) be capable of industrial application, in the sense of being able to be made or used in any kind of industry, including agriculture; and (iv) not be in a category of subject-matter which is specifically excepted from being patenta
