What is a patentable invention?
An invention is the physical embodiment or the ?reduction to practice? of a discovery. For an invention to qualify for a patent, the invention must be novel, non-obvious, and useful. Inventions may be a device, a manufacturable article or reagent, a composition of matter, a method of use, or a new, useful improvement. Utility: The patent statute specifies that an invention must be useful, that it must be good for some applied purpose. Novelty: The patent must be new, i.e., the exact same thing must not have existed or been done before. Non-Obviousness: Even if novel, the invention must also be different enough from past technology that the average worker in the field (?skilled in the art?) would not have come up with the new invention from what was already known. If the invention does not meet this test, it is rejected as obvious.
