A patent office tests a claim with three questions: is it new, does it show an inventive step, and…
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A patent office tests a claim with three questions: is it new, does it show an inventive step, and can it be used in industry. Three claims reach the office.
(1) The use of the juice of a plant for healing wounds, a use that villagers have known for generations.
(2) A new method to make a pure extract of the plant, with a step that nobody has used before.
(3) A rice variety that is the same as a variety of farmers.
- Which claims fail, and which test do they fail?
- Which claim may succeed?
- What does this show about the neem and turmeric cases?
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The worked solution
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Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Step 1. (a) Claims (1) and (3) fail the test of novelty. The use and the variety were known for generations.
Step 2. (b) Claim (2) may succeed. It is new, it has an inventive step, and an extract can be used in industry.
Step 3. (c) The neem and turmeric patents were attempts to patent uses and products based on plants that farmers had used for generations. They were challenged because the use was already known, so it was not new.
Answer: (a) 1 and 3, they are not new; (b) 2; (c) the knowledge was old, so the claims were not new.
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