If It's Patentable It Doesn't Mean It Has Clearance

The relationship between patentability and patent clearance is sometimes tricky. We think: I'm producing a product based on my own patent, so how could I possibly infringe someone else's exclusive rights? And yet it is possible. And not as rare as you might think.

Patentability

Patentability is evoked in the context of statutory conditions to be met by a technical solution in order to be eligible for patent protection. These include novelty, the presence of an inventive step, and industrial applicability.

While industrial applicability of a technical solution boils down to the type of invention and proper organisation of the patent description, there is more to consider when evaluating novelty and a potential inventive step. Scientists, persuaded of the high level of innovation of solutions that are the true children of their labour, often struggle come to terms with the fact that another inventor has already achieved what they believe they had