Bizstartup.ie - I have a business idea that combines existing technologies and uses them in a new and novel way to provide a service that is not currently available. What chance do I have in gaining intellectual property protection?

Clients frequently ask us whether an invention is patentable if it simply combines existing technologies.  If you think about it, even the most complex mechanical and electronic inventions will almost inevitably combine existing components, for example, springs, valves and levers or capacitors, transistors and logic gates.  The same is true for software-related inventions, which can often be broken down, at a low level, into a combination of elements which individually are already known.  What makes such inventions patentable is the fact that the elements have been combined in a new and non-obvious way to solve a technical problem.

In the case of a new service, we would also need to look at whether the combination is sufficiently technical to qualify as an "invention" in patent law.  The law in Europe says that certain types of innovation are not regarded as being inventions.  Notable among the exclusions are methods of doing business, and indeed the law specifies a range of other exclusions which are united by the fact that they involve an "intellectual" advance rather than a "technical" advance.

A lot of great new business ideas employ known website and software technologies for known purposes, and combine these technologies in ways which are obvious from a technical point of view.  The real innovation in many cases is in the new business method.  In such cases, where the innovation provides a solution to a business problem rather than a technical problem, it may not be possible to obtain a patent.

The dividing line between technical, patentable software inventions on the one hand and non-technical, unpatentable, business methods on the other hand, is a tricky one.  It usually requires some detailed discussion with a patent attorney who specialises in this field in order to identify if you fall inside or outside the "business method" exclusion.

However, if you can make an argument as to why your new combination of technologies is addressing a problem in some technical field, then you should certainly be looking at getting more detailed advice.