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There are certain exceptions governed by the Patents Act, section 1.
Patents may not be granted for:
Generally, protection can be granted for a product (apparatus, composition of substances, etc), a method (the way a product is used) and the use of a product for a specific purpose.
The main conditions for a patent to be granted are governed by the Patents Act, section 2.
The invention must represent something new, meaning that it must not have previously been in the public domain. This is called the ’novelty’ requirement and is very strict. If the invention has had any exposure to the general public, no matter how small, such as through a presentation at a minor local exhibition, or mentioned in a paragraph in the local paper, this requirement will be considered breached.
The invention must be substantially different from the ’prior art’ (all the information that has been made available to the public in any form before a given date that might be relevant to a patent's claims of originality). This requirement for an ’inventive step’ is meant to guarantee that patent protection is only granted for inventions that involve a certain technological leap from what was previously known.
The invention must also be industrially applicable, possessing a verifiable technical effect and being suitable for commercialisation. In practice, this claim is nearly always met.
The invention does not necessarily have to include new components. A new arrangement of known components could be patentable if the combination has a unique effect or takes an inventive step forward.