In US patent law, utility is a patentability requirement. Today, the utility requirement is the lowest bar and is easily met. Largely utility is used to prevent the patenting of inoperative devices such as perpetual motion machines. Utility is required by the patent law: 35 U.S.C. 101, "inventions patentable", and 35 U.S.C. 112, "specification".

There are three types of utility.

1. General utility is the requirement of functionality.
2. Specific utility is the requirement that the invention actually perform the function.
3. Moral, or beneficial, utility requires that the invention not "poison, promote debauchery, facilitate private assassination".

Moral utility is probably no longer a bar. The patent office regularly grants patents for sex toys and gambling.

The patent examiners guidelines require that a patent application express a specific, credible, and substantial utility. Rejection by an examiner usually requires documentary evidence establishing a prima facie showing of no specific and substantial credible utility.

European patent law does not test utility. Instead, it requires that to be patentable an invention must have industrial applicability.

See also

• Sufficiency of disclosure
• Diamond v. Diehr
• Reduction to practice
• State Street decision
• Utility model

External links

• 35 U.S.C. §101 Inventions patentable (introducing the term "useful")
• 2107 Guidelines of Examination

Notes

1. Lowell v. Lewis, 15 F. Cas. 1018, 1019 (C.C.D. Mass. 1817)

United States patent law