TABLE OF CONTENTS Every engineer knows the word patent and that patents relate to inventions . What is less well known, sometimes until it is too late, is that a patent is only granted for an invention which is new. This means not known anywhere in the world before an application for a patent is filed.
Disclosing the invention, whether by publishing a description of it, or exhibiting or selling something that incorporates it, means the invention is not new. This applies even if the inventor is the person who does the publishing, exhibiting or selling. The rule file before disclosing is not the sort of rule that can be broken, and many potentially patentable inventions cannot be protected because the inventor did not know this until too late.
There are several other requirements. The invention must not be obvious , that is, it must be more than a straightforward application of known principles; it also requires creative content. But the creative level required is much lower than is sometimes thought. Not all patents are related to major breakthroughs in technology, such as the concept of the transistor. A small change to a previous invention can also be patented and most patents are for improvements to an existing product or process. In the case of the transistor, more complex versions of the three-electrode original were designed: improved materials to use as transistors were devised, more reliable ways of attaching metal contacts were developed, and all of these could be patentable inventions.
Patents are...
