Much of this Red Guide was originally published in the
Journal of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, October
2009
Patent law protects new inventions which have a possible
industrial application. Examples of such inventions pervade every
aspect of human life: from electric lighting (patents held by
Edison and Swan) to ballpoint pens (patents held by Biro). What all
of these inventions have in common is that they represent either a
product or a process that provides a new way of doing something or
offers a new technical solution to a problem. Granting protection
for these inventions encourages continued innovation.
In order to obtain patent protection, an invention must be shown
to be capable of industrial application, display an element of
novelty, and be the result of an inventive step that could not be
deduced by a person with an average knowledge of the field in which
it was designed.
