Patentability Checklist

I. Checklist for Utility Patents

A. Is the utility invention:

• a process or method?
• a machine?
• an article of manufacture?
• a composition of matter? or
  
  
• an improvement of an invention that fits within one of the first four categories?

B. Is the utility invention:

• useful? (even some trivial usefulness satisfies the utility requirement)
• novel? (that is, different from all previous inventions in some important way)
• nonobvious? (is it a surprising and significant development to somebody who understands the technical field of the invention?)

II. Checklist for Design Patents

A. Is the design invention:

• novel? (that is, different from all previous inventions in some important way)
• nonobvious? (is it a surprising and significant development to somebody who understands the technical field of the invention?)
• nonfunctional? (as distinguished from a utility patent)

III. Checklist for Plant Patents

A. Is the plant invention:

• novel? (that is, different from all previous inventions in some important way)
• nonobvious? (is it a surprising and significant development to somebody who understands the technical field of the invention?)