Quelles sont les différentes catégories d'inventions protégeables ? Il existe plusieurs catégories d'inventions protégeables : * **Inventions techniques** : il s'agit de la catégorie la plus courante. Elle couvre les inventions qui ont une application technique, qu'elles portent sur un produit ou un procédé. Cela peut inclure des machines, des appareils, des méthodes de fabrication, des compositions chimiques, etc. L'aspect technique est essentiel. * **Découvertes scientifiques** : les découvertes elles-mêmes (comme une nouvelle loi de la nature) ne sont généralement pas brevetables car elles sont considérées comme faisant partie du patrimoine commun. Cependant, une invention qui utilise une découverte scientifique peut être brevetable si elle répond aux critères de brevetabilité (nouveauté, activité inventive et application industrielle). * **Plans, principes et méthodes** : * **Méthodes de traitement chirurgical ou thérapeutique** et **méthodes de diagnostic** : ces méthodes appliquées au corps humain ou animal ne sont généralement pas brevetables. Cependant, les produits (dispositifs, instruments, substances ou compositions) utilisés dans ces méthodes le sont. * **Règles et méthodes pour les activités intellectuelles, pour les jeux ou pour les activités économiques** : les simples programmes informatiques ne sont pas brevetables en tant que tels, mais un programme informatique qui produit un effet technique peut l'être. Les méthodes de gestion, les jeux et les activités économiques ne sont pas considérés comme des inventions brevetables. * **Présentations de l'information** : les simples présentations d'informations (par exemple, une base de données bien organisée) ne sont généralement pas brevetables. * **Variétés végétales et races animales** : les variétés végétales et les races animales peuvent être protégées par des droits de propriété intellectuelle spécifiques, comme le droit des obtentions végétales, qui est distinct du brevet. * **Inventions biotechnologiques** : certaines inventions biotechnologiques, comme les procédés de fabrication de substances, les produits isolés du corps humain ou obtenus par des procédés biotechnologiques, peuvent être brevetables, sous réserve de certaines conditions et exclusions (par exemple, le corps humain lui-même ou les procédés de clonage). Il est important de noter que pour qu'une invention soit protégeable par brevet, elle doit satisfaire à des critères fondamentaux tels que la **nouveauté** (ne pas avoir été divulguée publiquement avant le dépôt de la demande), l'**activité inventive** (ne pas découler de manière évidente de l'état de la technique pour un homme du métier) et l'**application industrielle** (pouvoir être fabriquée ou utilisée dans une industrie).
In patent law, it is essential to understand what can be protected. When we talk about inventions, we often think of a completely new object, such as an innovative device or a technological tool. But in reality, not all inventions take the form of a concrete product. Some relate to a new way of manufacturing, using, or combining existing elements.
Furthermore, not all inventions are patentable. In fact, not only must the invention meet the legal conditions for patentability, but it must also be ensured that it is not by nature or for ethical reasons outside the scope of protection.
Inventions protectable by patent law
The conditions
In France, these criteria are set out by Article L.611-10 of the Intellectual Property Code.
The invention must be new
An invention is new if it has never been disclosed to the public, in any form whatsoever (publication, marketed product, technical demonstration, etc.). The place, date, or person who revealed it is irrelevant: if the information is accessible, the invention is no longer new.
If you disclose your invention before filing a patent application (for example, at a trade show or on the internet), it enters the prior art and can no longer be protected. Hence the importance of keeping it confidential until filing.
The invention must involve an inventive step
This criterion aims to exclude inventions that merely provide too obvious a solution to a technical problem. The invention is assessed from the point of view of an ordinary professional in the field, referred to in law as the « skilled person«If this man skilled in the art would have easily found the solution, then the invention lacks inventive step. This is a subtle criterion, often at the heart of disputes. Many patents are cancelled not for lack of novelty, but for lack of inventive step.
The invention must be susceptible of industrial application
To be patentable, the invention must be capable of being made or used in any industry, including agriculture. This means that it must have a practical, not merely theoretical, application. This criterion aims to reserve patent protection for innovations that are useful to industry or society.
Exclusions
Even if an invention meets the three previous criteria, certain creations can never be patented, as they fall outside the scope of protection.
The inventions expressly excluded are exhaustively listed in Articles L611-16 to L611-19 of the Intellectual Property Code. These are:
- Scientific discoveries, theories, mathematical methods
- Software «as such» (unless it produces a technical effect)
- Therapeutic or surgical methods
- Creations contrary to public order or morality
- Natural plant varieties or animal breeds
- Elements of the human body «as such»
These exclusions aim to protect ethics, public health, and to prevent the privatisation of knowledge or living organisms.
The typology of inventions
Even though legal texts, such as the European Patent Convention (EPC) or the Intellectual Property Code (IPC), do not explicitly categorise inventions, practice has led to the emergence of a typology that helps in drafting claims and assessing the scope of a patent.
This typology primarily distinguishes between three main types of inventions: product, process, and application inventions. Combination inventions are also sometimes mentioned.
Product inventions
This is one of the most common categories and the one that confers the broadest protection. It protects a material object, a new substance, or a compound, whatever its complexity: a tool, a medicine, an electronic component, a molecule, etc.
Attention: it is the product itself which is protected, not the result obtained by its use. The product is what is manufactured, whereas the result is the effect obtained.
If this product is integrated into an already patented assembly: Counterfeiting must be avoided by filing a so-called "composition" or "improvement" patent, often with the agreement of the holder of the initial patent (via a licence).
The process invention
Here, the patent concerns a method of manufacture or production, that is to say a technical means (physical or intangible) for producing a result or a product.
In French law, a distinction is often made:
- The general method: a new technical function is protected
- The specific method: we protect the concrete realisation of this function.
The more generally the process is described, the broader the protection. But the more precise it is, the more the validity of the patent is assured.
The process is protected in its operation and its application. Other processes may lead to the same result without infringing the patent, unless the result itself is protected as a product.
Application invention
This type of invention relates to the new use of an already known product or means. In other words, something that already existed is taken and given an unprecedented application.
A classic example: Aspirin, originally used as a painkiller, was later patented for its blood-thinning effect, particularly for preventing pulmonary embolisms.
The protection covers only this particular application, and not the product or molecule itself.
The combination invention
This involves bringing together known elements (products or processes) in a new way to produce a novel technical effect. In other words, it involves taking several existing elements and combining them in an original manner to create a new technical effect.
This combination must cooperate technically to achieve a common objective. If the elements are merely juxtaposed (i.e. placed next to each other without interaction), it is not considered an invention in the patent law sense.
The patentability will depend on the overall technical effect produced by the combination.
Conclusion
Although current legislation does not systematically formalise this classification, these different categories of invention are essential for understanding what can be protected by a patent, how to adapt the drafting of claims, and what the extent of legal protection is.