The art of writing patents is one that is always growing and that takes years or even decades to master. Instead of learning how to write a patent yourself, we advise engaging a registered patent attorney or patent agent to prepare your patents. Doing so can assist you avoid receiving the following notice from your patent examiner:
The applicant’s lack of familiarity with the patent application process is evident from a review of this application. Although an applicant may pursue the application (with the exception that a legal entity must be represented by a patent practitioner, 37 CFR 1.31), a lack of expertise in this area typically poses a risk to providing the greatest protection for the disclosed invention.
The value of a patent is primarily contingent upon expert preparation and prosecution, hence the applicant is encouraged to retain the services of a licensed patent attorney or agent to prosecute the application. The Office is unable to provide assistance in choosing a lawyer or agency.
Even worse, you might believe you have a patent and be heartbroken by a miscommunication or a misspelling after all. When Altera discovered that a PACT claim used the word “haltered”—was it intended to be “altered” or “altered”—it was able to defeat an infringement accusation in Altera Corp. v. PACT XPP Tech. The judge ruled that the claim was unlawful because the underlying meaning was not clear and there was just one misspelling.
Your claim of uniqueness and a strong defense simply depend on the document you use to make them.
1.Rely on a qualified person
In light of these possibilities, we reaffirm our first piece of advice for writing a patent, which was already mentioned above: use a professional.
Technical writers are not always creative thinkers or prolific inventors. However, you must be sure that others can grasp your idea before releasing it into the public realm. The aim of the document is not being served if your reader is unclear about what is covered by your patent.
Consult a licensed patent attorney or patent agent to ensure that your intellectual property rights are safeguarded.
The methodology is created by the inventor. The implementation is then made clear and obvious with the assistance of a patent lawyer or agency. The ideal drafting partner is adept at conveying the big ideas of your technology as well as incorporating the minute formatting and linguistic distinctions that matter.
Of course, knowing what constitutes a strong patent will make working with a patent attorney or agency easier. The remaining pointers in this article will assist you in assisting your expert drafting partners in creating successful patents.
2.Perform a Complete Prior Art Search
Finding and comprehending every piece of pertinent prior art may seem daunting, but doing so is essential to the success of your patent. It is possible to expand your search to include all relevant terms, keywords, translations, synonyms, and parallels, as well as pertinent assignees, inventors, industries, categories, and technical patent office classifications, by using both semantic and Boolean search approaches.
3.Broad Claims in Draft
An infringing technology must contain each need listed in a single claim in order to be considered an infringement. Every term you choose to describe your innovation introduces a component that the competition may choose to ignore or work around in order to avoid violating your patent. So, be as inclusive as you can with your assertions.
You must undoubtedly provide at least one feature that sets the claim apart from the existing knowledge. Nevertheless, leave out any information that is not necessary for a general description. Otherwise, you impose an unnecessary restriction that gives an infringement the chance to avoid accountability by leaving it out of their rivals’ products or processes.
4. Broad Claims in Draft
An infringing technology must contain each need listed in a single claim in order to be considered an infringement. Every term you choose to describe your innovation introduces a component that the competition may choose to ignore or work around in order to avoid violating your patent. So, be as inclusive as you can with your assertions.
You must undoubtedly provide at least one feature that sets the claim apart from the existing knowledge. Nevertheless, leave out any information that is not necessary for a general description. Otherwise, you impose an unnecessary restriction that gives an infringement the chance to avoid accountability by leaving it out of their rivals’ products or processes.
5.Make Multiple Claims
Consider your patent claims as pieces in a Jenga® game. You should have developed a tower of claims such that, if some are rejected by a competitor, at least some will stand and, ideally, cover the competitor’s product or method.
The more claims you include in your patent, the better because the English language is not perfect and terms might be interpreted in several ways. For instance, an independent claim might be construed more narrowly than intended, which would make it simpler for the rivalry to avoid infringing. But if it were phrased another way, it may be taken more broadly and keep the opposition at bay.
By characterizing your invention in various ways with a number of independent claims that stand alone and dependent claims that make reference to and include the limits of other claims, you can fill your patent with a lot of claims.
6.The Need for Clarity
Clarity is essential when creating a complete application for patenting or an invention disclosure that will be published in the public domain in order to safeguard your intellectual property. These three issues frequently result in inconsistencies while writing a patent. When creating patent claims, keep these things in mind.
Detail
A reader’s ability to understand your idea might be hampered by both too much and not enough detail. Get right to the point by outlining the problem, the proposed solution, and the new aspects. Assume a common denominator of knowledge and keep in mind the principles of enablement as you describe your invention. Any individual versed in the relevant art may use the innovation without excessive experimentation with the help of an enabling document. However, if you don’t provide enough information, the reader will be compelled to infer what they believe an implementation should entail. Give just enough details to support the validity of your solution.
Ambiguity
A claim has an unclear antecedent if it contains a pronoun that the reader finds difficult to understand. This could happen all through the descriptive text or in a single sentence. For instance, it is said that the new setup needed 20% less space than the old one. Did “it” refer to the old arrangement or the new one? It had a 12 square foot footprint. The lack of obviousness. An ambiguous antecedent frequently prevents this from happening. Someone with minimal proficiency in the art must be able to interpret the claim and comprehend the scope.
The usage of personal pronouns when explaining procedure steps is another issue. The reader is left to speculate when a pronoun is not defined by the author. Remove the personal pronouns and explicitly specify who or what is performing an action to avoid this kind of uncertainty.
Mechanics and Spelling
Minor mistakes can have significant repercussions. Don’t expose yourself to patent application rejection or infringement because you accidentally typed something different than what you intended to express. Never edit or proofread your own work. The best course of action is to have a qualified, unbiased reviewer of the document.
