There are three statutory "hurdles" that must be cleared in order for an invention to be patentable in the United States:

• The invention must comprise patentable subject matter. The invention must relate to a useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter. For example, the invention cannot be a scientific formula that explains a phenomenon that inherently occurs in the prior art.
  


• The invention must be new. That is, a difference must be found when the invention is compared to the prior art. Also the invention must have been conceived by the named inventor(s).
  


• The invention, as a whole and at the time the invention was made, must not have been obvious to persons of ordinary skill in the related art.
  

Every U.S. application, including a provisional patent application and a design patent application, must disclose: (1) the invention in such a manner that those skilled in the related art are enabled to duplicate the invention without undue experimentation, and (2) the inventor's best mode of implementing the invention as of the application filing date-that is, the most up-to-date version of the invention must be disclosed in such a manner that the invention can be duplicated in the manner the inventor thinks is best at the time of filing the application.