What criteria should an invention meet to be eligible for patent rotection?
An invention must meet several criteria if it is to be eligible for patent protection. These include, most significantly,that the invention must consist of patentable subject matter, the invention must be industrially applicable (useful), it must be new (novel), it must exhibit a sufficient “inventive step” (be non-obvious), and the disclosure of the invention in the patent application must meet certain standards. (a) Patentable Subject Matter In order to be eligible for patent protection, an invention must fall within the scope of patentable subject matter. Patentable subject matter is established by statute, and is usually defined in terms of the exceptions to patentability, the general rule being that patent protection shall be available for inventions in all fields of technology. Examples of fields of technology which may be excluded from the scope of patentable subject matter include the following: discoveries of materials or substances already existing in nature; scientific theor
