critria for patent

For an invention to be patentable, it must, in general, satisfy three key criteria:

1. New – The invention should not be publicly known in any way, anywhere in the world.

Owners of inventions should be careful to keep the invention secret until a patent application has been successfully made. If the idea has already been talked about, commercially exploited, advertised or demonstrated, then the novelty of the invention may be compromised.

If the invention needs to be disclosed to a third party before a patent application has been made, a non-disclosure agreement should be drawn up.

Once a Date of Filing has been obtained for the patent application, the invention can claim a "Patent Pending" status and the applicant can proceed to disclose the invention as indicated in the patent application to interested parties. As part of the application process, the patent application will be published after 18 months and if the statutory requirements are met. Once published, details of the invention will be made available for public inspection.

2. Inventive step – The invention must be something that represents an improvement over any existing product or process that is already available.

The improvement must not be obvious to someone with technical skills or knowledge in the invention’s particular field.  If an invention is new yet obvious to a person skilled in the art, the invention would not fulfil the inventive step requirement.

3. Industrial application – The invention must be useful and have some form of practical application. It should be capable of being made or used in some form of industry

Reference

http://www.ipos.gov.sg