Professional Engineering Practice Patents Image credit: PCStuff 03:50, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Patent law A new patentable invention or any new and useful improvement to an existing invention must be: new — first in the world; useful — functional and operative; and inventive — show ingenuity and not be obvious to someone of average skill in the field of invention. http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/h_wr00001.html

Patent law (taken from previous link) A patent can be granted for: a product (e.g., a door lock); a composition (e.g., a chemical composition used in lubricants for door locks); an apparatus (e.g., a machine for making door locks); a process (e.g., a method for making door locks); or an improvement on any of these.

Patent law A patent is a government grant that gives the inventor (and anyone they hand the patent down to etc.), the exclusive right within a given country, during the term of the patent, to make, use and/or sell the invention claimed in the patent. Patents expire 20 years after the patent application was filed. The granting of Canadian patents is governed by the federal Patent Act, the Patent Rules, and international treaties. The enforcement of Canadian patents is the responsibility of the Canadian Federal Court. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_patent_law

Novelty In Canada, the requirements for novelty are codified under s. 28.2 of the Patent Act. Novelty consists of whether a single, publicly disclosed example of prior art contained all the information needed to produce the claimed invention Any such disclosure must not have occurred: (a) by the applicant more than a year before filing in a way that was publicly visible in Canada or elsewhere (b) by anyone else before the claim date in a way that was publicly visible in Canada or anywhere else (c) in an application for a patent filed in Canada by anyone else with an earlier filing date; If it was disclosed in any manner such that it became available to the public, it cannot be patented. This may include prior patents, publications or e.g. the invention being put on display. Disclosures in a private document do not count.

Anticipation A lack of novelty is often referred to as "anticipation". There is an eight-part test for this; the prior art must give: an exact prior description; directions which if followed will result in at least part of the invention; clear and unmistakable directions; information which is equal to that given by the subject patent; information so that a person grappling with the same problem must be able to say "that gives me what I wish"; information to a non-expert in a way they would recognize the invention; in the absence of explicit directions, teach an "inevitable result" which "can only be proved by experiments"; and satisfy all these tests in a single document.

Non-obviousness The requirement for non-obviousness is codified under s. 28.3 of the Patent Act. The test is that an "unimaginative skilled technician” through general knowledge and literature and information available on the subject at the time of application would have come up with the invention without difficulty In other words, it must be an invention that would not have been obvious on the claim date to a person skilled in the art or science to which it pertains Test for non-obviousness in Canada laid out in Apotex Inc. v. Sanofi‑Synthelabo Canada Inc., affirming the 1985 English case test of Windsurfing International Inc. v. Tabur Marine Ltd. http://www.cyclefish.com/forums/topic/129158

Utility For a product to have utility it must perform some useful function. The requirement is generally easy to meet, however, it does exclude inventions that would not be useful. Source: KevMAC

Subject matter There are number of things that cannot be patented, including: certain new plants some types of computer program medical treatments within the body (diagnoses based on, for example, blood tests, are patentable). With respect to software, algorithms are not patentable (but may be protected by copyright law), but software may be protected if it meets the criteria for patentability.

Timelines for patents First-to-file system Patents are granted to the first inventor to file an application, which may result in a "race to the patent office“. One year grace period inventors have one year after their first public disclosure of their invention to file a patent application. Disclosing the invention prior to filing a patent application will result in the loss of some international patent rights. Requesting an earlier filing date In some circumstances, if a patent has been filed earlier internationally or domestically for the same invention by the same person, the earlier "effective filing date" can apply.

Patent control and infringement Public access In Canada, all patent applications are made public eighteen months after the filing date. This allows the public to learn from it while protecting the inventor’s right. Patent agents The Canadian Intellectual Property Office publishes a list of Agents who are registered to file patent applications on behalf of inventors. Note - you must file in each country in which you want protection to license/manufacture/sell the technology Patent infringement Once an invention is patented in Canada, if anyone affects the patent holder's "full enjoyment of the monopoly granted by the patent“, this is considered a patent infringement. This includes: using or selling a patented invention without the patent holder's permission possession of a patented object using a patented object in a process

Keeping notes on your invention Use bound notebooks Sign and date books/entries Don’t modify/leave blank spaces Use ink Don’t remove pages/originals Record minutes/meetings/details of an experiment Save notebooks!

When not to file a patent (in general) If there is extensive prior art If there would be potential difficulties enforcing rights If the path to commercialization is not yet known If protection may be too narrow in scope If too soon – the protection does have a timeline