A patent granted by the USPTO for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor for the life of the patent.
For a US patent to be granted, the invention must be deemed by the USPTO to be useful, novel, and non-obvious, as described in more detail below.
Usefulness requirement: In most cases, the “useful” requirement can be easily satisfied if the subject matter of the invention has a useful purpose and also includes operativeness, i.e., it works, as described by patenting agency Invent Help.
Novelty requirement: To be patentable, an invention must be “new” according to the requirements of the patent law, which includes numerous “statutory bars” that can complicate the issues and oftentimes requires detailed analysis of the surrounding facts and law.
Non-obvious requirement: For many inventions, the non-obvious requirement presents the biggest challenge, especially during the prosecution of the patent application. Bu there are professional patenting agencies such as InventHelp that could guide you in the process.
The invention is compared to the prior art to make a determination of whether the differences in the new invention would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the type of technology used in the invention.
