Editing Invention (section)

== As defined by patent law ==
{{see also|Patentability}}
{{more citations needed|section|date=June 2020}}
[[Image:US Patent cover.jpg|thumb|upright|[[United States patent law|U.S. patent]]]]
The term ''invention'' is also an important legal concept and central to patent law systems worldwide. As is often the case for legal concepts, its legal meaning is slightly different from common usage of the word. Additionally, the ''legal'' concept of invention is quite different in American and European patent law.

In Europe, the first test a patent application must pass is, "Is this an invention?" If it is, subsequent questions are whether it is new and sufficiently inventive. The implication—counter-intuitively—is that a legal invention is not inherently novel. Whether a patent application relates to an invention is governed by Article 52 of the European Patent Convention, that excludes, e.g., discoveries ''as such'' and software ''as such''. The EPO Boards of Appeal decided that the technical character of an application is decisive for it to represent an invention, following an age-old Italian and German tradition. British courts do not agree with this interpretation. Following a 1959 Australian decision ("NRDC"), they believe that it is not possible to grasp the invention concept in a single rule. A British court once stated that the technical character test implies a "restatement of the problem in more imprecise terminology."

In the United States, all patent applications are considered inventions. The statute explicitly says that the American invention concept includes discoveries (35 USC § 100(a)), contrary to the European invention concept. The European invention concept corresponds to the American "patentable subject matter" concept: the first test a patent application is submitted to. While the statute (35 USC § 101)<ref name="USPTO">{{Cite web |title=35 U.S.C. 1 Establishment. |url=https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep-9015-appx-l.html |website=United States Patent and Trademark Office |access-date=1 August 2018 |ref=USPTO}}</ref> virtually poses no limits to patenting whatsoever, courts have decided in binding precedents that abstract ideas, natural phenomena and laws of nature are not patentable. Various attempts have been made to substantiate the "abstract idea" test, which suffers from abstractness itself, but none have succeeded. The last attempt so far was the "machine or transformation" test, but the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 2010 that it is merely an indication at best.

In India, invention means a new product or process that involves an inventive step, and capable of being made or used in an industry. Whereas, "new invention" means any invention that has not been anticipated in any prior art or used in the country or anywhere in the world.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Indian Patent Act 1970 – Sections |url=http://ipindia.nic.in/writereaddata/Portal/ev/sections/ps2.html |website=ipindia.nic.in |access-date=2019-04-03}}</ref>