First to File: Patents for Today's Scientist and Engineer

Preface

What is the scientist's or engineer's role in the patenting process? Why not leave it all to a patent attorney? On the other hand, why use a patent attorney at all?

As this book will demonstrate, patent law has its underpinnings in technology. What the patent statute lists as the qualifications for a patentable invention, augmented by the definitions and interpretations imposed by the courts that hear patent cases, all reflect an interest in recognizing and rewarding technological advances and in discriminating those advances that are meritorious from those that are mere trivialities. Indeed, both the patent statute and the court decisions make repeated reference to the “person having ordinary skill in the art” as the ultimate arbiter of patentability. The technologist's view as to what this hypothetical person might find “obvious” or “nonobvious” adds a measure of realism to this highly debated principle of patent law. Clearly, the technologist's participation in the patenting process is both essential and advantageous.

The patenting process is also of interest to managers, officers and directors, and anyone in a technology-based organization whose function is to promote the viability, sustainability, and the growth of the organization. As some of the chapters in this book will demonstrate, numerous statutory provisions and regulations relating to patents reflect general business practices, such as the rights of employers versus employees and vice versa, and the economic ...