Novelty, Nonobviousness, and Anticipation
12/01/17 Novelty, Nonobviousness, and Anticipation
Novelty
A requirement for obtaining a patent. To be novel, all material elements of an invention cannot have been disclosed in any previous technology or publication (prior art).
Nonobviousness
A requirement for patent protection. A new invention must produce unexpected or surprising new results that are not anticipated by the existing technology (or prior art). A nonobvious invention is unexpected by a person with ordinary skill in the art — for example, the telephone technology created by Alexander Graham Bell was not obvious to audio and sound engineers of Bell’s day.
Anticipation
A situation in which an invention is too similar to an earlier invention to be considered new (or novel). Because novelty is a requirement for patentability, anticipated inventions are not patentable. An invention is usually anticipated by 1) prior publications (a news article, trade journal article, academic thesis, or prior patent), 2) prior inventions (if all significant elements of the later invention are found in an earlier one prior to the date of invention or the applications filing date), 3) placing the invention on sale more than one year prior to an applications being filed, or 4) public use or display of the invention more than a year prior to filing the patent application.
