In
United States patent law
Under United States law, a patent is a right granted to the inventor of a (1) process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, (2) that is new, useful, and non-obvious. A patent is the right to exclude others, for a limited ...
, a machine is one of the four principal categories of things that may be patented. The other three are a process (also termed a ''
method
Method ( grc, μέθοδος, methodos) literally means a pursuit of knowledge, investigation, mode of prosecuting such inquiry, or system. In recent centuries it more often means a prescribed process for completing a task. It may refer to:
*Scien ...
''), an
article of manufacture
In United States patent law, an article of manufacture (also termed a manufacture) is one of the four principal categories of things that may be patented. The other three are a process (also termed a method), a machine, and a composition of matte ...
(also termed a ''manufacture''), and a
composition of matter
In United States patent law, a composition of matter is one of the four principal categories of things that may be patented. The other three are a process (also termed a method), a machine, and an article of manufacture. In United States patent l ...
. In United States patent law, that same terminology has been in use since the first patent act in 1790 (with the exception that processes were formerly termed "arts").
In ''In re Nuitjen'', 500 F.3d 1346 (Fed. Cir. 2007), the
United States Court of Appeals
United may refer to:
Places
* United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Arts and entertainment Films
* ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film
* ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...
for the
Federal Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (in case citations, Fed. Cir. or C.A.F.C.) is a United States court of appeals that has special appellate jurisdiction over certain types of specialized cases in the U.S. federal court ...
said:
To this it might be added that the parts must interact (usually dynamically) with one another, for otherwise they might be parts of an
article of manufacture
In United States patent law, an article of manufacture (also termed a manufacture) is one of the four principal categories of things that may be patented. The other three are a process (also termed a method), a machine, and a composition of matte ...
. It has been considered grounds for rejecting or invalidating a machine claim as being directed to a "mere aggregation" if the parts were merely associated with one another without interacting functionally. An illustration of a mere aggregation would be the "combination" of a bathtub and a pencil sharpener. More recently, the "mere aggregation" ground of invalidity for a machine claim has been subsumed under obviousness.
[See 35 U.S.C. § 103; ''Sakraida v. AG Pro, Inc.'', 425 U.S. 273, 282 (1976); ''Anderson's-Black Rock, Inc. v. Pavement Salvage Co.'', 396 U.S. 57, 60 (1969).]
Examples of machines are steam engines, sewing machines, and TV sets. Electronic circuits have usually been considered machines, although they may lack moving parts.
See also
*
Machine-or-transformation test
In United States patent law, the machine-or-transformation test is a test of patent eligibility under which a claim to a process qualifies for consideration if it (1) is implemented by a particular machine in a non-conventional and non-trivial ...
—test of patent-eligibility requiring transformation of article or implementation with "particular machine"
*
Printed matter (patent law)
The term printed matter, in United States patent law, refers to information printed on or otherwise associated with an article of manufacture that is claimed to distinguish an article from similar articles already in the prior art. It was long use ...
References
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United States patent law