Posts Tagged: "patent education"

Harnessing Differences Between U.S. and European Patent Education Systems for an International Advantage in Portfolio Strength

Participants in the U.S. and European patent systems face a rapidly changing landscape as the European patent with unitary effect and Unified Patent Court (UPC) are off to a successful start. The UPC has positioned itself alongside U.S. district courts, the International Trade Commission (USITC), and the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) as a leading patent litigation forum…. Accordingly, participants in these patent systems constantly engage with U.S. and European patent attorneys, and now interact more frequently with attorneys who can represent them before the UPC (“UPC representatives”). This article describes key differences in the training, development, and skill sets of U.S. patent attorneys, European patent attorneys, and UPC representatives.

Drafting Patent Applications: Writing Method Claims

Method or process claims will include active steps to achieve a certain result. In method claims the transition is typically either “comprising” or “comprising the steps of.” While legally there may be some distinction between these two different transitions, both are acceptable. It is also important to understand that each of the steps in a method or process claims use gerunds, which are a form of a verb that ends in “ing” and operates to direct the action that is to take place. Said another way, you must use “ing” words in method claims. You cannot define a method or process in the past tense.

What Skills Should New Patent Associates Have?

I have been asked to create a patent curriculum that will have at a minimum 24 credit hours of patent related legal education, perhaps more.  As you might expect, I have some ideas about how to fill the curriculum, but thought I might open this up for discussion here to gain the collective thoughts, wisdom and insights of IPWatchdog.com readers.…