ABSTRACT
The purpose of the United states (US) patent system is to promote work in the sciences and useful arts by providing a reward to inventors as an incentive to disclose information for the benefit of the public. The US has sought to harmonize the patent laws of different nations and to establish minimum standards for acquisition and enforcement. Courts in the US were often willing to withhold patents for inventions they considered immoral. Historically, these fell into two classes: inventions used to defraud buyers and machines used for gambling. The constitutional origin of intellectual property law in the US enables the judiciary there to embark on judicial legislation. Criteria for patentability are laid down by the judiciary suggesting that, in the US, traditional patent law criteria are malleable and, in contrast to European fora, readily adapted to meet the needs of new technology.
