Canadian patent law is the legal system regulating the granting of patents for inventions within Canada, and the enforcement of these rights in Canada. A 'patent' is a government grant that gives the inventor—as well as their heirs, executors, and assignees—the exclusive right within Canada to make, use, and/or sell the claimed invention during the term of the patent, subject to adjudication. In general, Canadian patent law is administered by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. The granting of Canadian patents is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Canadian federal government and is governed by the federal Patent Act, the Patent Rules, and various international treaties and the regulations thereunder. The enforcement of Canadian patents is the responsibility of the Canadian Federal Court and the provincial/territorial Courts. Definition of a patentable invention Patents apply to inventions. To be considered patentable, an invention must pass three criteria: novelty — the invention must be new, i.e., "first in the world". non-obviousness — it must be inventive, "showing ingenuity and not obvious to someone of average skill who works in the field of that invention". utility — the invention must be useful, i.e., functional and operative. Novelty To be patentable, an invention must be novel. That is, the invention must not have been described or claimed in a previously filed third-party Canadian patent application, and must not have been previously publicly disclosed by a third party, anywhere in the world. The test for novelty is whether or not a single, publicly disclosed example of prior art "contained all of the information which, for practical purposes, is needed to produce the claimed invention without the exercise of any inventive skill". If a third party previously filed a Canadian patent application disclosing the invention, or if a third party document or device previously publicly disclosed the invention anywhere in the world, then a subsequently applied-for Canadian patent application for that invention is lacking in novelty and is invalid. A lack of novelty is often referred to as "anticipation". For example, if a piece of prior art has each of the elements of a claimed invention, the piece of prior art is said to "anticipate" the claimed invention, or alternatively, the claimed invention is said to have been "anticipated by" the piece of prior art. In Canada, the requirements for novelty are codified under s. 28.2 of the Patent Act: The section does not restrict disclosure to