Should Inventors Draft Patent Applications?

By: Gene Quinn
Posted: June 27, 2008 at 1:07 pm

It is not at all uncommon for inventors to want to attempt to draft and file patent applications on their own. This is in no small part due to the fact that if an independent inventor goes to a patent attorney the attorney will typically require somewhere from $5,000 to $10,000 up front prior to commencing representation. This is a lot of money for many inventors, particular first time inventors who are trying to invent to follow a dream and/or to perhaps be able to start a business and work for themselves. It is for this reason that many will proceed without an attorney, and perhaps even fall into the clutches of a disreputable invention submission company.

I am frequently asked if it is a good idea for inventors to file their own patent applications. I suspect when this question is asked the person asking the question already knows the answer, but is hoping against hope that they may be told to go right ahead.

The truth of the matter is that drafting a patent application is no small undertaking. There are many laws and rules that must be taken into consideration, and if you are not knowledgeable with respect to how the courts are interpreting patent claims currently you are doing little more than guessing or taking your best, uneducated shot, which is not a recipe for success.

I have taught patent application drafting and patent claim drafting courses for over 10 years, and even when motivated, intelligent individuals are new to this area there are an endless string of mistakes that are made. Thus, it is not surprising that most patent attorneys believe that a new patent attorney or agent is really not ready to draft a patent application on their own until they have had somewhere between 20 to 25 applications under their belt at the elbow, or under the guidance of, an experienced patent attorney. So now ask yourself this: If a patent attorney who has drafted 10 patent applications under the guidance of a mentor is not yet ready to go solo, why would you as an independent inventor with no experience think you could do an adequate job on your own?

If you are serious about filing a patent application and hiring a patent attorney is simply out of the question due to the expense, there are some things you can do to help yourself. Perhaps the lowest threshold of assistance would be to obtain a copy of the popular do-it-yourself patent book - Patent It Yourself. This book is not bad, but it is not going to teach you all of the nuances you really ought to know about preparing and filing a patent application. You can come out with a good patent application if you follow what this book tells you to do, but there are things that are suggested that no patent attorney would ever do. Thus, when I see a patent application written by an independent inventor I can always tell when they have used Patent It Yourself. This does not mean you shouldn’t get it, but do understand the limitations. The book typically sells for under $50, which should tell you something. It is a good start to understanding how to draft a patent, but no single book is going to be able to take you from novice to competent.

One thing you can do is do much of the work yourself and then have a patent attorney review your work and provide suggestions and feedback. One company that can help you do this is LegalZoom.com. LegalZoom.com can help you prepare the documents and forms necessary for filing a design patent application, a provisional patent application and even a nonprovisional utility patent application. I have worked with LegalZoom.com as a consultant over the years to help them come up with reliable and valuable help for inventors. They use a version of a system I have several patent applications on, which walks you through providing information relating to your invention. This information can then be reviewed by a patent attorney, namely me, to give you additional guidance and walk you through what needs to be done. Because you the inventor do much of the background work under my guidance you realize significant savings. So if you have some ambition, you want to learn what needs to be done and you are interested in saving money this mentored process I have created in conjunction with LegalZoom.com is a good choice.

Filed Under All Blog Posts, Invention Blog, Patent Blog