Inventor's Guide to Trademarks and Patents, The

Chapter 2. Formulating the Idea

In order to formulate an inventive idea, you must first identify a problem and then identify a solution to the problem. The solution must be novel in order to be granted a patent. An inventor must apply two tests to determine if the solution is novel:

1. Is this idea one that those skilled in the art^[1] have not yet considered?

   ^[1] The term “those skilled in the art have not yet considered” is key to Intellectual Property Law. Essentially, this means experts have not considered this as a solution.

2. Is this idea one that those skilled in the art would have^[2] considered?

   ^[2] The question of “would have considered,” is very subjective, but suggests that the solution might be obvious to experts and they would have naturally ...