Patentable Things

Good idea to create an article on Patentable subject matter, but why inserting this criterion after novelty in the patentability article and in the template? In European patent law, an invention is first examined in order to see whether it relates to excluded subject-matter, then novelty is examined. Is it different under United States patent law?
We may have to find a compromise. --Edcolins 11:40, 17 October 2005 (UTC). As I understand it, in the UK a patent application can be knocked out on any of the patentability grounds at any stage in the patent office process, as the nature of what is new about the patent becomes clearer, and more investigation is done into the previous state of the art.
As Mr Prescott QC found in CPFH's Application, a preliminary sanity check can sometimes settle the question of Article 52, but not always: rather, the tests must be taken together - to be patentable, what is new and non-obvious about the invention must also be patentable subject matter. The reason I preferred the order I chose, is that it seems IMO the sequence which best goes from the most general and fundamental first, to the most special and particular last -- and so this is the best order to present them to a layperson, reading about patentability for the first time.
First, and most fundamentally for a layman, an invention must be new -- because that is the whole purpose of the patent system, to encourage the development of new things. Secondly, an invention must be new, and not one of the few things excluded from patentability. Thirdly, an invention must be new, not excluded, and sufficiently different from what has gone before. Fourthly, it must not be a perpetual motion machine. That's why I think it makes sense to present the tests in this order.