In certain jurisdictions'
patent law, industrial applicability or industrial application is a
patentability requirement according to which a patent can only be granted for an
invention
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an i ...
which is susceptible of industrial application, i.e. for an invention which can be made or used in some kind of industry. In this context, the concept of "industry" is far-reaching: it includes
agriculture, for instance. An example of invention which would ''not'' be susceptible of industrial application is "a method of
contraception ..to be applied in the
private and personal sphere of a
human being
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedality, bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex Human brain, brain. This has enabled the development of ad ...
".
In
United States patent law, the
utility requirement is a more or less corresponding, but different, requirement.
Jurisdictions
European Patent Convention
Under the
European Patent Convention (EPC), the requirement that an invention must be susceptible of industrial application to be patentable means that the invention "can be made or used in any kind of industry, including agriculture". In decision T 870/04 it was held that the mere fact that a substance can be made in some way does not necessarily mean that the requirements of are fulfilled, unless there is also some "profitable use" for which the substance can be employed.
When an alleged invention does not comply with the generally accepted
laws of physics, the industrial application is also lacking. In that case, the industrial application requirement is related to the requirement of
sufficiency of disclosure
Sufficiency of disclosure or enablement is a patent law requirement that a patent application disclose a claimed invention in sufficient detail so that the person skilled in the art could carry out that claimed invention. The requirement is fu ...
, i.e. the requirement that a "patent application must disclose the invention in a manner sufficiently clear and complete for it to be carried out by a
person skilled in the art
A person having ordinary skill in the art (abbreviated PHOSITA), a person of (ordinary) skill in the art (POSITA or PSITA), a person skilled in the art, a skilled addressee or simply a skilled person is a legal fiction found in many patent laws t ...
".
excludes "methods for treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy and diagnostic methods practised on the human or animal body" from patentability, because these methods are regarded as not susceptible of industrial application. The purpose of this exclusion is "to deny patent protection to methods which serve medical purposes, so that no one could be hampered in the practice of medicine by patent legislation."
Special edition 6/2007, EPO Board of Appeal Case Law 2006
pages 17-18.
Japan
See also
* Incredible utility
References and notes
External links
* ( European Patent Convention)
** : "Industrial application"
** : "The requirement of industrial application under Article 57 EPC"
* ( Patent Cooperation Treaty)
Article 1
of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, see in particular paragraph (3) for guidances as to how the word "industry" should be interpreted.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Industrial Applicability
Patent law