The Law of Patents for Useful Inventions

Patentability

• Title 35 of the U.S. Code defines American patent law. Title 35 states that a patent may be granted to someone who has discovered or invented "any new and useful process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof."
  
  

Useful

• The definition of "useful" is clarified by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The USPTO states that the invention must have "a useful purpose and must also include operativeness."
  
  

Operativeness

• The USPTO states that "a machine which will not operate to perform the intended purpose would not be called useful and therefore would not be granted a patent." If an invention can not perform its intended function, its use, it is not patentable.