Imagine you invented something but you are not sure whether it is fulfilling the patentability criteria or not. After a year you realize someone has come up with the same invention in the market and it is doing fantastically and generating a lot of revenue. Now tell me would you not be concerned because you were the first person to invent that?
Well, if you have any intangible property. Don’t hold yourself back because we have come a very long way in terms of protecting intellectual property rights, especially patents. Globally, the patent system has become so strong that in the world of inventors, now you can easily patent inventions and can easily commercialize them to generate revenue and also give back to society in the form of changing society and creating ease in other people’s lives.
Let’s see the patentability requirements for the invention. Before that, what is the invention? The invention is described as a new product and process involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application.
Hence, an invention must satisfy three basic criteria for obtaining a patent:
- The first and fundamental undisputed criterion for patentability is an absolute novelty that claims inventions must be new, and original. It should be novel globally even if you are filing a patent in one country and should not be anticipated through the publication which means your invention details must not be published anywhere. So, it is advisable that if someone files the patent, the invention must not be in public knowledge or public use in that country.
- The next criteria for patentability are inventive steps or non-obviousness. This criterion says that your product/process invention should have technical advancement. If the invention is obvious to the person who is skilled in the art, it is not considered an inventive step. The invention should involve technical advances over the existing knowledge to be non-obvious. This is how the technology evolution has happened, and this is how 90% of the patents in the world are improved/modified over the present patent.
- The third and final criterion is an industrial application or utility. The invention should be capable of being used in the industry. The invention even though it has novelty and is non-obvious cannot be granted a patent status unless it is of use to mankind. An invention that has no use cannot be patented. This essentially means that invention cannot exist in the abstract. It must be capable of being applied in any industry and must have practical utility to be patentable.
– Written by Kanika Meena.
