Definitions for "Inventive"
(used of persons or artifacts) marked by independence and creativity in thought or action; "an imaginative use of material"; "the invention of the knitting frame by another ingenious English clergyman"- Lewis Mumford; "an ingenious device"; "had an inventive turn of mind"; "inventive ceramics"
Able and apt to invent; quick at contrivance; ready at expedients; as, an inventive head or genius.
Under section 1 of the Patents Act 1977, an invention is not patentable if it is not inventive. An invention is not inventive if it is obvious to a person as to any matters already known which form part of the existing state of the art.