patentability

Question

Can you patent a product that is basically two products that are simply attached to one another?

Answers: 2 public & 0 private

8a416533c2
Patent Attorney

more details are needed to properly answer this question.

Nevertheless, in principle, yes you can. It comes down to how "obvious" would it be to combine them, and whether or not the combination provides any advantage other than those provided by the two separate elements.

For instance. A radio plays musis, a skateboard moves you around. A skateboard with an integrated radio moves you around while playing music. Hardly surprising, difficult to patent.

On the other hand, a given glass in brittle but very light and porous to gas X. Another glass is sturdy but heavy, and also porous to gas X. Their combination is averaging the strength and weight (to be expected) but is surprisingly and unexpectedly not porous to gas X. This may be patentable.

Also, please note that different jurisdictions may have different "threshold levels" for how obvious a combination may be, so you may get different results in different countries.

Steven weinrieb
Patent Attorney

It depends. Usually you can expect the best results - to be patented - if the combination of the two components results in an unexpected or more efficient result, operation, use, function, or the like - in simple terms, the combination is greater than the mere sum of its parts. A good example of this is the original patent for a pencil with an eraser on its opposite, non-writing end - USP 0019783. The writing end of the pencil performs as intended, the eraser end of the pencil performs as intended, but the combination is uniquely useful in that an eraser separate from the pencil is no longer needed, is not readily lost or misplaced, and is always available to erase or change what one has written.
In short, a new, useful function for the overall combination - or, as I said, the combination is effectively greater than the mere sum of its parts.

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