In patent law, industrial applicability or industrial application is a patentability requirement according to which a patent can only be granted for an invention which is susceptible of industrial application, i.e. for an invention which can be made or used in some kind of industry. In this context, the concept of "industry" is far-reaching: it includes indeed agriculture for instance. An example of invention which would not be susceptible of industrial application is "a method of contraception to be applied in the private and personal sphere of a human being" (T 74/93 [http://legal.european-patent-office.org/dg3/biblio/t930074ep1.htm)

The industrial application requirement is closely related to the requirement of sufficiency of disclosure, i.e. the fact that a "patent application must disclose the invention in a manner sufficiently clear and complete for it to be carried out by a person skilled in the art" (see also: reduction to practice, especially in United States patent law).

The utility is a more or less corresponding requirement in US patent law, but different however.

External links

• Article 57 of the European Patent Convention
• Article 33 of the Patent Cooperation Treaty, see in particular paragraph (4).
• Article 1 of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, see in particular paragraph (3) for guidances as to how the word "industry" should be interpreted.

Patent law