1. Patentability requirements 

There are four basic requirements for patentability:

(i)there must be an "invention", belonging to any field of technology (see G‑II)

(ii)the invention must be "susceptible of industrial application" (see G‑III)

(iii)the invention must be "new" (see G‑IV to G-VI) and

(iv)the invention must involve an "inventive step" (see G‑VII).

Technical character is an implicit requirement for there to be an "invention" within the meaning of Art. 52(1) (requirement (i) above; see G‑II, 1 and G-II, 2 for more details).

In addition:

– the invention must be such that a person skilled in the art ‒ after proper instruction by the application ‒ can carry it out (see F‑III, 3 for instances where this requirement is not met) and

– the invention must relate to a technical field (Rule 42(1)(a) – see F‑II, 4.2), must be concerned with a technical problem (Rule 42(1)(c) – see F‑II, 4.5) and must have technical features in terms of which the matter for which protection is sought can be defined in the claim (Rule 43(1) – see F‑IV, 2.1).