Posts in Patent Drafting Basics
The Most Common Design Patent Application Rejections (and How to Avoid Them) – Part II
In Part I of this article, we examined the top three rejections for design patent applications, which are due to non-enablement, inconsistency, and ambiguousness. The fourth most …
The Most Common Design Patent Application Rejections (and How to Avoid Them) – Part I
As one of about 46,000 registered practitioners in the United States, most of us are unfortunately too well acquainted with Section 101, 102, and 103 rejections from the U.S. Patent …
Practical Tips for Drafting Patent Applications After American Axle & Manufacturing Inc. v. Neapco Holdings
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided on October 3 to affirm the ruling by the United States District Court for the District of …
What Every Patent Attorney Should Teach Their Entrepreneur-Inventor Clients About the Patent Process
Navigating the patent process can often be challenging and filled with subtleties and nuances for the entrepreneur-inventor, especially for first-time filers. Having a trusted patent attorney who …
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 …
Improving Speed and Quality Using Automation for Patent Application Drafting
Patent application drafters are front-line participants to some of the most amazing innovations in the world today. A recent WIPO paper on Artificial Intelligence (AI) outlines how …
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 …
If You Want to Protect Your Business Method, Reframe It as a Technical Invention
The most effective way to protect an inventive business method is with a patent on a technical invention. Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 Alice …
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 …
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 …
AI Patents Make a Comeback at USPTO, Finance Patents Are Still Struggling
Artificial Intelligence (AI) patents have made a strong comeback under the new 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance. As the first graph above shows, allowances per office …
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 …
