How Do I Write a Patent Application PDF?

How do I write a patent application PDF?

Learning to write a good patent claim is a skill that requires years of experience. This is why anyone who is serious about obtaining a valuable patent will engage with an experienced patent agent or attorney to draft claims. So, there is no simple, short answer to this question. It’s like asking how to build a car. Any kid can put together a toy car. But a safe and functional road-worthy vehicle? You’re not going to learn how to do that overnight after getting a few pointers on the internet. But it is worthwhile to understand some basic ideas about patent claims. First, before writing a patent claim, one should understand what it is. A claim defines the boundaries of the patent rights, which is a right to exclude others from practicing what is within the scope of the claim. A patent does not grant you the right to practice the invention; it only grants you the right to stop others from practicing it. A claim to a new and useful device, for example, often has a form something like this. a gadget comprising a) first widget, b) second widget, c) third widget, where the first widget and second widget are connected to the third thing by a doodad. A product will infringe the claim if it has all the features of the claim. So, the less that is in a claim, the broader its scope. So, less is more. Adding more to a claim narrows its scope, which usually makes it less valuable. Taking things out of a claim makes it broader and more valuable. A short and broad claim, however, is more likely to be anticipated by the prior art and be denied a patent. A claim is anticipated by a prior art reference if each claimed limitation is in the reference. So, the fewer things in the claim, the easier it is for the patent examiner to find prior art with all those things and reject the claim. The more that is in the claim, the harder it is for the patent examiner to find prior art that has all those things. So, writing a good claim is a balancing act of writing the claim as general as possible, while at the same time writing it sufficiently specific that it is different from the prior art. Learning to do this well is a real art. This is just the tip of the iceberg. It is in fact much more subtle and complicated. In addition to being novel over each piece of prior art taken alone, the claim also has to be non-obvious in view of all the prior art taken collectively. So, one needs an understanding of how prior art references can be combined and a good feel for what the threshold is for how different the claim needs to be in order to be non-obvious in view of those combinations. Also, the scope of the invention as claimed needs to be commensurate with the scope of the invention as described in the patent specification and drawings. One cannot claim a whole genus while only explaining enough to enable others to practice just one species. So, drafting the claims goes hand-in-hand with drafting the description and drawings. Claims also need to be written in clear and definite terms, so that the boundary between what is and is not covered within the scope of the claims is unambiguous. Relative terms such as “high” and “low” for example are indefinite and will be rejected. There are also strict rules about the use of definite and indefinite articles so that everything recited in the claim has proper antecedent basis. Claims need to be written so that t are directed to patent-eligible subject matter. Avoiding pitfalls there requires quite a bit of experience, especially in computer-related inventions. A patent application normally includes a whole set of claims. The most important claims are the independent claims that define the broadest scope of the invention. But dependent claims are valuable to include because t provide positions to retreat to during prosecution in the event that the main claim is unpatentable. This is just a rough sketch of a few of the basics of patent claim drafting. There is a lot more. A whole lot more. Pictured. Patent claims for US Pat. 7058628 - Method for node ranking in a linked database - The “Page Rank” Patent licensed to Google