Posts Tagged: independent inventor
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 …
The Plight of the Patentee
Having produced a non-obvious, non-abstract invention and playing by the patent office’s rules is no guarantee of a patent granting. Some examiners have refused to issue …
Patent Applications 101: Drawings Really Should be Required
Better practice remains to file applications with any and all drawings necessary to understand the invention. The best practice is not only to file what is necessary, …
PTAB Reform: An Urgent Request on Behalf of Independent Inventors
What follows is a letter on the topic of PTAB reform that will be sent to USPTO Director Andrei Iancu on Monday, May 14, 2018. The letter seeks urgent …
USPTO Director Iancu Makes Surprise Appearance at Inventor Conference
"We are focused on delivering reliable and predictable IP rights," Director Iancu told the Inventor Group Presidents gathered at the Patent Office as he addressed them to …
Understanding Substitutes: Is your invention desirable to consumers?
Frequently one of the most challenging aspects of inventing is determining what need a particular invention fills. This is not to suggest that inventors do not know …
Inventorship 101: Who are Inventors and Joint Inventors?
Inventorship is one of the most fundamental concepts in patent law. Of course, fundamental does not mean easy or uncomplicated. Patents are granted to inventors, which is …
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 …
Indie Innovators Still Exist, Barely
Maybe I and none of my generation will make it into the USPTO Hall of Fame because none of us will have valid patents, valid inventions. Maybe …
Provisional Applications: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Provisional applications can be a very useful tool, but only when they are done right. When provisional patent applications are done poorly you not only obtain no …
Patent Search 101: Why US Patent Searches are Critically Important
Patents are expensive to obtain. The last thing you want to do is spend a lot of money if there are easy to find references a US …
10 Critical Pieces of Advice for Inventors
There really is no one-size-fits-all approach inventors can follow, and there is no inventing roadmap to success that will work in all cases. Notwithstanding, there are certainly …
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 …
Inventors Protest PTAB on Supreme Court Steps
Yesterday, a group of dedicated inventors took to the steps of the United States Supreme Court in order to protest the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) …
