Patent Ideas

Ideas alone do not qualify for patents. Patent office does not grant patents for "mere ideas or suggestions". In order for patent ideas to be patentable, there must be an actual, workable invention. The rules in patent ideas also stipulate that the patent be explicit enough such that anyone "ordinarily skilled in the art" can apply what they learn in the patent to make the invention and make it work successfully. Patent ideas are only possible if the idea is used to invent or discover any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement to an already patented invention. Practically any patent ideas turned to invention made by humans are patentable. Patent ideas one must have an invention, not upon merely the idea or suggestion of a new invention.

Patent ideas do not grant inventors the right to make, use, sell, or import their inventions - only to exclude others from doing so. Patent ideas fall into four general types:  (1) Utility patents, usually referred to as "patents" without any further qualification, (2) Design patents which cover the ornamental appearance of various products, (3) Plant patents  which cover asexually  reproduced varieties of plants, e.g. hybrid roses, fruit trees bearing new types of fruit, etc., and (4) Semiconductor chip masks which are not called patents but are handled by the Patent and Trademark Office.   For the grant of an ordinary, or utility patent, the invention must fall into one of four statutory classes of invention, which are (1) a process, (2) machine, (3) article of manufacture, (4) composition of matter, or (5) an improvement on an existing invention in one of those classes of invention.   The invention that comes out due to the patent ideas must be considered new. Patent ideas for new inventions can be done unless any of the following applied before it was invented:

* it was known or used by others in the U.S.
* it was patented in the U.S. or foreign country
* it was described in a printed publication in the U.S. or foreign country
Patent ideas on new invention can be approved unless any of the following apply more than one year prior to the date of a patent application:
* it was patented in the U.S. or foreign country
* it was described in a printed publication in the U.S. or foreign country
* it was in public use or on sale in the U.S.

Also patent ideas on inventions must also be considered useful. This means that it must perform a function and do what it is intended to do. Furthermore, patent ideas on invention must give new and non-obvious results compared to known approaches.