Patent It Yourself - PDF Archive

C H A P T E R
5
Is It Patentable?
A. Patentability Compared to Commercial Viability................................................................. 95
B. Legal Requirements for a Utility Patent...................................................................................... 95
C. Requirement #1: The Statutory Classes....................................................................................... 96
1. Processes, Including Software....................................................................................................... 97
2. Machines................................................................................................................................................... 99
3. Manufactures......................................................................................................................................... 99
4. Compositions of Matter.................................................................................................................100
5. New Uses of Any of the Above...................................................................................................100
D. Requirement #2: Utility.......................................................................................................................100
1. Unsafe New Drugs.............................................................................................................................101
2. Whimsical Inventions.......................................................................................................................101
3. Inventions Useful Only for Illegal Purposes..........................................................................101
4. Immoral Inventions...........................................................................................................................101
5. Nonoperable Inventions, Including Perpetual Motion Machines............................101
6. Nuclear Weapons...............................................................................................................................102
7. Theoretical Phenomena..................................................................................................................102
8. Aesthetic Purpose..............................................................................................................................102
E. Requirement #3: Novelty....................................................................................................................102
1. Prior Art..................................................................................................................................................102
2. Any Physical or Method Step Difference Whatever Will
Satisfy the Novelty Requirement...............................................................................................106
F. Requirement #4: Unobviousness....................................................................................................107
1. Unobvious to Whom?......................................................................................................................108
2. What Does “Obvious” Mean?......................................................................................................108
3. Examples of Obviousness and Unobviousness...................................................................109
4. Secondary Factors in Determining Unobviousness......................................................... 111
5. Secondary Factors in Determining Unobviousness of
Combination Inventions................................................................................................................. 113
6. How Does a Patent Examiner Determine “Unobviousness”....................................... 116
7. Weak Versus Strong Patents......................................................................................................... 116
8. The Inventor’s Status Is Irrelevant............................................................................................. 116
G. The Patentability Flowchart.............................................................................................................. 117
H. Don’t Make Assumptions About the Law................................................................................. 118
I. Summary....................................................................................................................................................... 118