Maybe. 

I know, I know, it’s rather annoying when lawyers give that answer or “it depends” so often, but there is no “one size fits all” with legal answers. With inventions, patentability depends on several factors that will be different for each invention.

These factors prevent many patent applications from succeeding in becoming granted patents. Some of these important factors are distilled into essential requirements about the invention itself, rather than being just paperwork technicalities:

Novelty: There must not be anything already like it. An identical invention or one very similar to it must not already be patented, described in someone else’s patent or patent application, described in a printed publication, on sale, or in public use before the application date. That includes any public knowledge of the invention caused by the inventor or owner of the rights! Be careful about letting the public know about your invention so you don’t accidentally give up your ability to get a patent. There are some exceptions granting the applicant a grace period of one year prior to the application date if they already disclosed their invention to the public in any way.

Usefulness: This is a low bar to meet, fortunately. It doesn’t mean the invention has to provide some important use. It generally means that it has to work and not be completely pointless.

Nonobviousness: This one can be tricky, because it can be subjective and hard to prove or disprove. It means the invention can’t be an obvious step of innovation to take to improve already existing inventions to someone who works in the field in which the invention is made.

A patentability search done by a patent attorney is designed to search key sources to help determine whether there are already patents, applications, or other public uses of an identical or similar invention that could pose patentability problems for your invention because they show your invention is too similar to other inventions, or is likely to be considered an obvious invention in the field. Your patent attorney can also help you determine whether existing public knowledge of your invention will prevent an application from issuing as a patent.

We’ve had clients who insisted they knew their field so well they were certain nothing else like their invention existed and thus didn’t need a patentability search, only to be proved wrong after spending many thousands on applications. A much less expensive search would have uncovered the problem and saved them a great deal of money.

King Patent and Business Law, PLLC can help with all your patent search and application needs.