What are the patentability requirements for a patent?
An invention, under Costa Rican Law, must fulfill 3 specific conditions to be protected by a patent; novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability. The element of novelty, implies that the invention has a new characteristic or features which is not known in the body of existing knowledge in its technical field. This body of existing knowledge is called ” prior art”, and it includes any information which has been made available to the public anywhere in the world by written or oral disclosure. Regarding the inventive step, it is requiered that the invention could not be deduced by a person with average knowledge of the technical field. And industrial applicability means that the invention has a specific, substantial and plausible utility; in other words, that has practical use.
