Patent Attorney and Founder
We have a new barbecue sauce, and you want to get a patent for it. It’s going to be difficult, right? First and foremost, you have to be able to meet the novelty requirement. This has to be a first-of-its-kind barbecue sauce. So, if you’re going for the actual composition of matter, meaning you’re trying to be the first barbecue sauce with these ingredients, I could say that’s going to be challenging just because all of the recipe books, anything ever been published up until this point now in history, online or in print, is going to be what’s called prior art. Meaning, an examiner would be able to cite that against you and say, “No, these ingredients have been used before for years. I’m sorry, this is not new.” And, of course, that would include any variability in terms of the volume or how much and what percentage of it is in there. And so, that would go toward the second prong, which is obviousness. So, if you have to show that the ingredients, the actual sauce itself, is not an obvious version of some other sauce that’s come before.