As an inventor working on an idea or invention, the first thought which is often encountered includes “Is my idea patentable”, “Can my invention be patented”, "what kind of inventions can be patented" and “Is my idea patent-eligible”. The foremost thing which you need to be aware of is that a mere idea or a concept cannot be patented. Your idea or invention should be a: new product; ornew process;            that solves a technical problem.            You must also be aware that merely a new process or a product in itself will not qualify for an invention, additionally, the invention or idea must also: involve an inventive step (i.e., must not be obvious to a person skilled in the art); andcapable of industrial applications;            Again, you may find the above terms such as ‘new product’, ‘new process’, and ‘inventive step’ may not be self-explanatory and still do…

Before we answer this question, it is important to first understand what intellectual property or IP is. IP refers to intangible assets created by human intellect. e.g. copyright on any story, trademark for a logo, design for the shape of a bottle, etc. Similarly, patent is also a type of IP granted for an invention which fulfills the statutory requirements. By way of this IP, you basically get some rights. Now coming back to patents, shorn of its statutory intricacies and procedural niceties, a patent most simply put is a right bestowed on a person, by which he can prevent others from using his invention without his consent. The key word above is invention. Not every product or process you develop qualifies to be an invention. It has to be ‘novel’. It also shouldn’t be very obvious. To make things more confounding, some things aren’t patentable at all, no matter…