How Do You Know If Your Idea is Patentable

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Before applying for a patent, an inventor should be able to know the following guidelines:

Be able to determine whether your idea is not one of the following: a law of nature, physical phenomena or an abstract idea. This only means that you can’t patent math or herbs as a new medicine.
Your idea should not be a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic piece of work. These types of work need copyright and not patent.
Your invention should be useful. Being useful means that your idea has a useful purpose and it is going to be functional. A machine that will not perform on its intended purpose will not be considered useful.
Decide whether your invention is offensive to public morality or not. If it is planned for any illegal purpose, it does not fall on this category.
Find out if your idea is original. No one should have known, used, patented or illustrated your design in a printed publication before you, in the U.S. or even in abroad.
There should be no public disclosure of your invention for more than one year before your application for a U.S. patent.
The idea must be unique. It should be surprising and can be considered significant to the development of other people in the same field of your interest.
Assess whether your invention can be adequately described. Ask yourself: can someone in the same field make and use it?
You should be able to make your claim on your invention in clear and definite terms. A patent cannot be obtained in a mere idea or suggestion. You should be able to describe all features of your invention.
You, as the inventor, are the only one that can apply for a patent. Through a power of attorney or authorization, you can delegate a patent attorney or patent agent to apply in behalf of you. However, if the inventor is dead, insane, refuses to file or is under contract to others, application for a patent can be assigned.

Tips:
Utility patents can be applied for a process, device or machine, article of manufacture, composition of matter, or an improvement of any of the above.You can conclude if your invention is novel by doing a "prior art" or patent search by finding out if someone else has already patented your idea. An inventor or a hired professional can conduct a search of the USPTO records.