So the standard for getting a patent is really has three different filters to it. The first is utility, the second is novelty, and the third is non-obviousness. So if you can meet those three requirements then you can potentially get a patent on your device or your method. So utility involves actually having something that is useful and the important thing to understand is that when we’re talking about utility we’re really talking about things in two different ways. One is that you can’t claim something that is so abstract that you’re patent would preempt anyone from practicing the actual abstract idea. So it has to be some kind of an implementation of an abstract idea of the idea that’s being protected and not completely preempting the idea itself that’s the utility requirement.

The novelty requirement basically says that your product or your service has to be something new, something that is not already in the prior art. And by prior art I mean everything that was known to mankind in any form whether it be in patents or whether it be in non-patent literature or products that are being offered on the market. All those things constitute prior art. So the novelty requirement says that in order to get a patent you have to actually invent something that is new over the prior art.

And then the third filter is non-obviousness. So whatever it is that you have invented that’s new over the prior art has to be something that’s more than a trivial, obvious advance over the prior art. So it has to have some degree of inventiveness to it.

And those are the three requirements. If you can meet the utility, the novelty, and the non-obviousness requirement then you stand a good chance of getting a patent.