Posts in Patent Drafting Basics
Background Pitfalls When Drafting a Patent Application
Generally speaking, the first section of a patent specification will be the Background. The Manual of Patent Examination and Procedure (MPEP) recommends that the Background be broken …
Eight Tips to Get Your Patent Approved at the EPO
Patent prosecution can sometimes seem to be a rather byzantine process. As with anything, the more you understand, the better prepared you will be for the strategic …
What to Know About Drafting Patent Claims
In order to obtain exclusive rights on an invention, you must file for and obtain a patent. Many inventors will initially opt to file a provisional patent …
Beyond the Slice and Dice: Turning Your Idea into an Invention
The patent process actually starts well before you file a patent application or seek assistance from a patent attorney. Every patent application starts with an invention, and …
Examining the Unforeseen Effects of the USPTO’s New Section 112 Guidelines
When the USPTO issued its 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance in January of this year, it seemed as if the patentability tides had finally shifted 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 …
Software Patent Drafting Lessons from the Key Lighthouse Cases
Obtaining a U.S. software patent is still harder than it was five years ago, but studying these "lighthouse" cases can improve one's chances of success. While …
Patent Drafting Basics: Instruction Manual Detail is What You Seek
In some important ways a patent application should be akin to an instruction manual, but unlike the aforementioned BBQ grill, the reader of relevant skill in the …
How to Write a Patent Application
Writing a patent application is not as easy as many think. Indeed, the concept of usefully describing the invention, which on its face seems easy enough to …
Admissions as Prior Art in a Patent: What they are and why you need to avoid them
So what is an admission? A statement made during patent prosecution identifying the work of another as prior art is called an admission. Admissions can and will …
Patent Drafting: The most valuable patent focuses on structural uniqueness of an invention
It can be enormously difficult for inventors to describe their own inventions. This is true not because the inventor doesn’t know what they’ve invented, or …
Patent Drafting: Proving You’re in Possession of the Invention
The purpose of the written description requirement is broader than to merely explain how to make and use the invention, which is the subject of the enablement …
Patent Drafting: Understanding the Enablement Requirement
The enablement requirement is specifically aimed at ensuring the claimed invention is described with sufficient detail so the relevant person of skill in the art or technology …
Patent Drafting 101: Say What You Mean in a Patent Application
When drafting a patent application it is always the best policy to never assume anything. It is dangerous to assume that the reader will fill in any …
Patent Drafting 101: Going a Mile Wide and Deep with Variations in a Patent Application
You absolutely want to file a patent application with a description that is a mile wide — that part is good — but you also need to also drill …
