How to Invent and Protect Your Invention: A Guide to Patents for Scientists and Engineers

6.3 THE (REGULAR OR NONPROVISIONAL) PATENT APPLICATION

The patent application document is first of all a valuable teaching instrument. It describes an invention clearly and in detail so that technical people skilled in the art can duplicate and use it without additional experimentation.

Specifically, the application consists of a petition, specification (with drawings if needed), claims (see Section 5.6), an oath (that the inventor believes he or she is the first and original inventor), and fees, which depend on the length of the specification and the number of claims. These items must be prepared following exactly the requirements of the Patent Law (U.S.C. 35), the Patent Rules of Practice and the Manual of Patent Examining Procedures (see Figure 6.1). The latter, the “bible” of patent examiners, patent attorneys, and patent agents, is a guideline and reference work on procedures and practices of well over 2000 pages. These three key documents are freely available online from the PTO.

Figure 6.1 Key documents relevant to patents: The United States Constitution, which leads to Patent Law, the Patent Rules of Practice for attorneys, and the Manual of Patent Examining Procedures for patent examiners.

A well-crafted patent application first describes accurately the background of the invention and the problems the inventor grappled with to complete the invention. The introductory ...