[2] Members of the public can also initiate lawsuits in the courts of various nations to have patents declared invalid.
If the patent survives a revocation action, this fact is noted for future reference by way of a Certificate of contested validity.
The first patent in a given area might include a broad claim covering a general inventive concept if there is at that point no relevant prior art.
The most significant implication of this requirement, which makes the US practice different from all other countries, is the fact that only actual people-inventors (and not their employer) can apply for a US patent.
[needs update] The requirement to list actual human inventors was further confirmed by case law: "Inventorship is indeed relevant to patentability under 35 U.S.C.
Chapter 2100, in particular, gives a comprehensive overview of the standards for patentability, a discussion of the related case law, and guidance on how to overcome an examiner's rejection of a given set of claims.
[4] Once a patent issues, it is presumed valid and a court may declare it invalid only on the basis of clear and convincing evidence.
So an "invention" in European legal terminology is similar to "patentable subject-matter" in the American system.