What is a Patentable Invention?

A patentable invention is an invention which is new, and inventive, and belongs to the fields of economic endeavour as opposed to the fine arts. A patentable invention can be an article, machine, organism, or substance, or a method or process. Not all ideas give rise to patentable inventions. A patentable invention must have some practical use and not be merely a scheme or plan, or a discovery of a property or phenomenon already existing in nature. There are also some other exclusions from patentability. The issue as to whether an invention belongs to the fields of economic endeavour as opposed to the fine arts is a question as to whether an invention is, in legal-speak, a "manner of manufacture".

For the purposes of a standard patent or an innovation patent in Australia, for an invention to be new, it must not have been previously published in document anywhere in the world, and it must not be otherwise known in Australia. Other countries have different requirements.

To be inventive, an invention must involve something beyond the everyday skill of an ordinary person. In the case of a standard patent or a petty patent there must be an inventive step, which requires that the invention must not be obvious to a person skilled in the technological field of the invention. In the case of an innovation patent, the level of invention is lower, in that there must be an innovative step, which requires that what is new must contribute something to the way the thing works (as opposed to being merely different for no reason).

There are often instances where questions arise as to whether there is sufficient newness or inventiveness in an invention, and indeed whether an invention qualifies as a manner of manufacture. We, as patent attorneys, are often required to provide advice in these grey areas.

TYPES OF PATENT AND DURATION