Читать книгу Intellectual Property Law for Engineers, Scientists, and Entrepreneurs - Howard B. Rockman - Страница 72

The first threshold that must be reached in determining whether your invention constitutes patentable subject matter is to establish that the invention itself is in the form of an embodiment, such as a prototype, or has been described or illustrated in terms sufficiently tangible and concrete, and not merely conceptual, to qualify for patent protection. Once this tangible or illustrated embodiment of your invention has been created, it must be determined whether the invention falls within one of the statutory classes of patentable inventions covered by 35 U.S.C. Section 101, which means that the invention must be a process, a machine, an article of manufacture, or a composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof. At this point, it must also be determined whether an article patent, method (process) patent, design patent, or a combination of any of these would best serve the interests of protecting the technology embedded in the invention. More recently, algorithms embodied in software and tied to a machine, biotech strains, and business methods are patentable subject matter, but only under certain conditions. These three types of inventions and the present rules regarding their patent eligibility will be discussed in the ensuing chapters owing to the somewhat complex nature of the legal analyses applicable to these categories of inventions.

More specifically, a process or method may involve treating a material to produce a particular result or product, or may involve manipulating tangible matter to produce a desired end result. One example would be a process to temper glass to make it break resistant. Processes can also comprise a new use for a known composition, such as a new use for a known chemical compound.

A machine is a device that performs a useful operation, usually having mechanical or electrical components, such as, for example, springs, hinges, transistors, resistors, sensors, controls, etc. A composition of matter is a combination of two or more substances, and includes chemical elements or compositions, such as a soft drink formulation or a drug compound.

A manufacture is a catch‐all category for the remaining statutory subject matter which comprises anything not a process, machine, or composition of matter. A manufacture may be a human‐made genetically engineered bacterium, for example, which is capable of breaking down crude oil. Included among “things” that are not patentable subject matter are purely mental processes, naturally occurring articles, scientific principles, and abstract ideas.