https: An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition or process.

The invention
process is a process within an overall engineering and product development process. It may be an
improvement upon a machine or product or a new process for creating an object or a result. An
invention that achieves a completely unique function or result may be a radical breakthrough.
Such works are novel and not obvious to others skilled in the same field. An inventor may be
taking a big step in success or failure.

Some inventions can be patented. A patent legally protects the intellectual property rights of the
inventor and legally recognizes that a claimed invention is actually an invention. The rules and
requirements for patenting an invention vary from country to country and the process of
obtaining a patent is often expensive.

Another meaning of invention is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social
behaviours adopted by people and passed on to others.[1] The Institute for Social Inventions
collected many such ideas in magazines and books.[2] Invention is also an important component
of artistic and design creativity. Inventions often extend the boundaries of human knowledge,
experience or capability.

Contents
 1 Three areas of invention
 2 Process of invention
o 2.1 Practical means of invention
o 2.2 Conceptual means
 2.2.1 Play
 2.2.2 Re-envision
 2.2.3 Insight
 2.2.4 Exploration
 2.2.5 Improvement
o 2.3 Implementing Inventions
 3 Invention vs. innovation
 4 Purposes of invention
 5 Invention as defined by patent law
 6 Invention in the arts
 7 See also
 8 References
 9 Further reading
 10 External links

Three areas of invention

Sociopolitical inventions comprise new laws, institutions, and procedures that change modes of
social behavior and establish new forms of human interaction and organization. Examples
include the British Parliament, the US Constitution, the Manchester (UK) General Union of
Trades, the Boy Scouts, the Red Cross, the Olympic Games, the United Nations, the European
Union, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as movements such as socialism,
Zionism, suffragism, feminism, and animal-rights veganism.

Humanistic inventions encompass culture in its entirety and are as transformative and important
as any in the sciences, although people tend to take them for granted. In the domain of
linguistics, for example, many alphabets have been inventions, as are all neologisms
(Shakespeare invented about 1,700 words). Literary inventions include the epic, tragedy,
comedy, the novel, the sonnet, the Renaissance, neoclassicism, Romanticism, Symbolism,
Aestheticism, Socialist Realism, Surrealism, postmodernism, and (according to Freud)
psychoanalysis. Among the inventions of artists and musicians are oil painting, printmaking,
photography, cinema, musical tonality, atonality, jazz, rock, opera, and the symphony orchestra.
Philosophers have invented logic (several times), dialectics, idealism, materialism, utopia,
anarchism, semiotics, phenomenology, behaviorism, positivism, pragmatism, and deconstruction.
Religious thinkers are responsible for such inventions as monotheism, pantheism, Methodism,
Mormonism, iconoclasm, puritanism, deism, secularism, ecumenism, and Baha’i. Some of these
disciplines, genres, and trends may seem to have existed eternally or to have emerged
spontaneously of their own accord, but most of them have had inventors. [3]

Process of invention
Practical means of invention

Alessandro Volta with the first electrical battery. Volta is recognized as one of the most
influential inventors of all time.
Idea for an Invention may be developed on paper or on a computer, by writing or drawing, by
trial and error, by making models, by experimenting, by testing and/or by making the invention
in its whole form. Brainstorming also can spark new ideas for an invention. Collaborative
creative processes are frequently used by engineers, designers, architects and scientists. Co-
inventors are frequently named on patents.

In addition, many inventors keep records of their working process - notebooks, photos, etc.,
including Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Evangelista Torricelli, Thomas Jefferson and
Albert Einstein.[4][5][6][7]

In the process of developing an invention, the initial idea may change. The invention may
become simpler, more practical, it may expand, or it may even morph into something totally
different. Working on one invention can lead to others too.[8]

History shows that turning the concept of an invention into a working device is not always swift
or direct. Inventions may also become more useful after time passes and other changes occur.
For example, the parachute became more useful once powered flight was a reality.[9]

Conceptual means

Thomas Edison with phonograph. Edison was one of the most prolific inventors in history,
holding 1,093 U.S. patents in his name.

Invention is often a creative process. An open and curious mind allows an inventor to see beyond
what is known. Seeing a new possibility, connection or relationship can spark an invention.
Inventive thinking frequently involves combining concepts or elements from different realms
that would not normally be put together. Sometimes inventors disregard the boundaries between
distinctly separate territories or fields.[citation needed] Several concepts may be considered when
thinking about invention.

Play
Play may lead to invention. Childhood curiosity, experimentation, and imagination can develop
one's play instinct. Inventors feel the need to play with things that interest them, and to explore,
and this internal drive brings about novel creations.[10][11]

Sometimes inventions and ideas may seem to arise spontaneously while daydreaming, especially
when the mind is free from its usual concerns.[12] For example, both J. K. Rowling (the creator of
Harry Potter)[13] and Frank Hornby (the inventor of Meccano)[14] first had their ideas while on
train journeys.

In contrast, the successful aerospace engineer Max Munk advocated "aimful thinking".[15]

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