Proceedings of the Hungarian Group 23. [antikvár]

Dr. Tivadar PALÄGY1* REQUIREMENTS OF PATENTABILITY 1. The patentable invention Sec. (1) of the Patent Act of 1995 defines the conditions for patentability similarly to those provided by Article 1 of the 3rd Strasbourg Agreement as well as Article 52 of the European Patent Convention1 by stating that any invention that is new, involves an inventive step and is susceptible of industrial application is patentable. Under this definition, the conditions of patentability have been substantially changed because the present law imposes only three conditions of patentability, instead of the four requirements of the earlier Patent Act of 1969, which were: novelty, progress in the art, technical character and practical applicability. Thus, out of the earlier requirements novelty alone has actually been maintained as a condition of patentability. Inventive activity is a new requirement although it may be stated that it was also included indirectly in the former Act. Indeed, the Patent Office had earlier required it on the basis that, when determining novelty under Sec. 2 of the former Act, an invention was considered to be new when it had not become known to such an extent that it could be realized by a person skilled in the art. Inventive activity as required by the present Act can also be implied in this definition; indeed the concept was mentioned on two sites in the ministerial motivation of the earlier Act. In fact, a clearer situation has been created, in that Patent Attorney, Danubia Patent & Trademark Attorneys