About Patents and Trademarks
What can be
patented
(Excerpted from The Investor's
Desktop Companion: A Guide to
Successfully Marketing and Protecting
Your Ideas by Richard C. Levy.
Visible Ink Press: Chicago, 1991)
Patent law specifies the general
field of subject matter that can
be patented.
In the language of the Statute,
a person who "invents or
discovers any new and useful process,
machine, manufacture, or composition
of matter or any new and useful
improvements thereof, may obtain
a [utility] patent," subject
to the conditions and requirements
of the law. The word "process"
means a process or method, and
new processes, primarily industrial
or technical processes, that may
be patented. The term "machine"
used in the statute needs no explanation.
The term "manufacture" refers
to articles which are made, and
includes all manufactured articles.
The term "composition of matter"
relates to chemical compositions
and may include mixtures of ingredients
as well as new chemical compounds.
These classes of subject matter
taken together include practically
everything which is made by man
and the process for making them.
In a 1980 Supreme Court decision
the court indicated that the PTO
could not refuse to patent simply
because it covered living subject
matter. The PTO subsequently announced
on April 17, 1987, that it would
consider patents on animals after
an agency appellate board ruled
that oysters are patentable subject
matter. The patent, however, did
not issue. But it wasn't long
until one did.
On April 12, 1988, patent history
was made when the PTO issued the
first patent covering an animal,
specifically genetically engineered
mice for cancer research. The
number of biotechnology patents
has increased by 10-15% each year
since 1988.
What
Cannot Be Patented
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