CHAPTER 7THE JOY OF READING PATENTS

Now that you’ve found some patents that you’re interested in, how do you go about reading them without losing your mind? There are a few tricks that might help. First, and most important, don’t try to read the whole thing.

Hopefully, your search has turned up a small pile of patents and applications that are of interest for a more detailed review. The size of the pile will determine how much time you can afford to invest in each one. I use the term pile loosely, of course, since you’ll presumably be doing all but the most detailed review electronically, either with a text file or using a PDF of the patent.

As a quick exercise, download a PDF of the patent US 8,000,000, “Visual Prosthesis.” We’ll use this as ...

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