Posts in Patent Basics
Why Engineering Companies Get into IP Trouble: Five Tips to Mitigate the Risks
Too often, engineering companies are in such a race to come up with the next big thing that they forget to consider the crucial step following their …
Distinguishing Colloquial Obviousness and Legal Obviousness
Have you ever worked with a lay inventor who had a hard time dealing with obviousness under U.S. patent law? Many patent lawyers have. It is …
Your Developers Could Be Publicly Disclosing Source Code By Using Third-Party Code Repositories
Recently, I met with a potential client to discuss key points that developers and management should keep in mind in taking the first steps to begin developing …
How to Be an Effective Advocate When Responding To Examiners
You're a patent prosecutor. You've just received an office action. The examiner has rejected your claims. You think the examiner got it wrong. On the technical issues, …
Matching Patents to Products: Determining Which Patents Will Be Implemented in Real-World Commercial Products
An important part of any patent portfolio manager’s work is to understand which patents are likely to be implemented in real-world technology. We can think of …
Strategies for Preparing Infringement and Validity Opinions
A company must be strategic in any business decision it makes in order to ensure that it takes the necessary measures to avoid liability for its actions. …
Mitigating ‘Justified Paranoia’ via Provisional Patent Applications
As mentioned in Part I of this series, many inventors will seek to obtain some kind of patent protection so they can stake claim to their invention. …
Justified Paranoia: Patenting and the Delicate Dance Between Confidentiality and Investment
Most inventors understand that a certain amount of paranoia goes a long way when dealing with an idea or invention. Ideas cannot be patented, but every invention …
Simultaneous Invention as Secondary Evidence of Obviousness
Is an invention arrived at by multiple inventors within a short space of time necessarily obvious? If not, how far may the evidence of simultaneous or contemporaneous …
Combating the ‘Dunning-Kruger Effect’ in Inventors
Patent professionals encounter many different personality types working with their colleagues and inventors. On one end, there are those who do great work but lack confidence in …
Anatomy of a Valuable Patent: Building on the Structural Uniqueness of an Invention
From a conceptual standpoint, it would seem logical to assume that writing text to describe a particular invention ought to be easy for the inventor of that …
How Can I Sell an Idea for Profit? Unlocking the Idea-Invention Dichotomy
Selling an idea and waiting for lottery-like winnings to arrive at your doorstep seems to be the American dream. It is certainly the dream of every inventor, …
Dear Examiner: I am an Imposter
That feeling that you are a fraud and that, one day, people will find out you have no idea what you are doing has a name—Impostor …
Keeping a Good Invention Notebook Still Makes Good Sense
It is worth remembering, however, that an invention notebook is not just for proving when you invented aspects of your invention, which will rarely if ever be …
Patent Pending: The Road to Obtaining a U.S. Patent
The term patent pending is a well recognized term of art that many inventors rightfully covet. It subtly, and very directly, conveys great meaning. It means that …
