What types of inventions can be patented?
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues three different kinds of patents: utility patents, design patents, and plant patents. To qualify for a utility patent — by far the most common type of patent — an invention must be: • a process or method for producing a useful, concrete, and tangible result (such as a genetic engineering procedure, an investment strategy, computer software, or a process for conducting e-commerce on the Internet) • a machine (usually something with moving parts or circuitry, such as a cigarette lighter, a sewage treatment system, a laser, or a photocopier) • an article of manufacture (such as an eraser, a tire, a transistor, or a hand tool) • a composition of matter (such as a chemical composition, a drug, a soap, or a genetically altered lifeform), or • an improvement of an invention that fits within one of the first four categories. If an invention fits into one of the categories described above, it is known as “statutory subject matter” and has pa
