A patent is an intellectual property right to protect inventions, granted by a country’s government as a territorial right for a limited period. Patent rights make it illegal for anyone except the owner or someone with the owner’s permission to make, use, import or sell the invention in the country where the patent was granted.

For a patent to be granted the invention must be:

• Novel
• Inventive
• Have industrial applicability

Patents can be used to protect any invention that meets the fundamental criteria of novelty, inventiveness and it has to have real world use. So generally, products or processes that contain ‘new’ functional or technical aspects can be protected. They are concerned with how things work, how they are made, or what they are made of. Certain subject matter is not patentable patent law:

1. a discovery, scientific theory or mathematical method;
2. a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or any other aesthetic creation whatsoever;
3. a scheme, rule or method for performing a mental act, playing a game or doing business, or a program for a computer;
4. the presentation of information;