Patent

Posted by English Learner on March 03, 2003

Hello there,
I browsed a website and ran into certain paragraph about patent. I don't quite understand its meaning. Could you please help me out? It is cited as following:

Section 103. Conditions for patentability; non-obvious subject matter

(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not

identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of

this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to

be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a

whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to

a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject

matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the

manner in which the invention was made.

1. What is patentability? Any difference from patent?
2. What does this paragraph mean? Could you analyze the paragraph? It's way too long to be understood.
3. What does the last sentence mean? Does it mean the refuted present patent applicant can't deny the patentability of the prior art because of its close similarity? Namely, A is denied because A has similiarity with B, which has patent. A can't use this excuse of similarity against B claiming that B shouldn't get patent either. Am I right? I am pretty confused now. Thank you for your great help.
English Learner