There are a couple things that are important and come into play:
First thing is that it has to be novel. One must conduct a prior art search because you want to make sure your idea is novel and that it has not been filed as a patent beforehand. And just as a good general thing to do, one should do these searches in order to gain a better understanding of the patent field.
Second part is the part that pertains more to your invention. This part focuses on making sure that your invention is non-obvious, or in other words, the invention needs a little bit more unexpectedness than just an obvious change to the original product / idea. Good rule of thumb here is that your invention must be non-obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the field of your invention. Something that I learned was that there are patent attorneys who will help you determine whether your invention is obvious or non-obvious because there is a blurred line here and many people are confused about it.
Obviousness can also be determined by looking at prior art. Looking at similar products in the prior art search can help one determine whether there was a non-obvious leap in the new invention.
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