Dear Scientists
I want to a person to guide me how to write a good patent.
Shazia Kanwal Malik ,
I would suggest to have a registered IP lawyer or agent to submit your patent. This is important for the following reasons:
That being said if you want to write a patent either to do a pro se submission or to help the attorney (and have him bill you by the hour) I would suggest the following(note : this is not how lawyers do it, but how I as an inventor do it)
For the search
After doing this, I would not suggest that you start with the claims (that is how a lawyer would do it). If you are the inventor, it is more efficient to start with the disclosure). For the actual invention disclosure:
Numbering and ID process
For each salient element that you introduce in the narrative there should be a number or id. This should be done at this stage. While I do it concurrently with the drawing stage, I would not advise it for you as a beginner. focus on providing Ids for the salient features that you want to highlight
If you get to this part, the next stage would be the claims and I would hold of on it until you complete these steps so that you have enough context to do the claims.
Additional references are:
1. Patent it Yourself by David Pressman
2. Litigation Proof Patents by Larry Goldstein
Hello Shazia Kanwal Malik
I think the most correct answer is the 1st answer (by Mr. Geigel - of course, the best is to hire a patent attorney) but this requires a lot of resources.
|I know sometimes people ask a bunch of herbalists - can you recommend a herbal remedy for a tummy ache - and many people say - visit a doctor!|
- Nevertheless, if you can not hire a patent attorney, you can do the following:
- You can study the "patent language" and the structure of the text in selected patents. They may be related to the field that you research or, they may not relate to that field. This is just to get the "feel" about the form and contents in the patents. These are either WO Patent applications, or US patent, applications, or EP applications. There are many more patent applications from other countries, however, these are one of the main 5-6 countries that publish the most. I would suggest to try and look in WO applications.
- Once you are sure that you can write up the text of the application, just go on writing as you would do for a journal and/or conference paper.
- The most important part of the so-named specification (Description, Drawings and Claims) are the Claims. For the claims - you have to think about what your invention is about and describe the features of your invention in the broadest form. The claims are set (typically) in one sentence. The main claims are so named Independent claims, and the secondary claims have added features to the independent claim and with these features, the scope of the claims narrows and makes it easier to distinguish from other inventions.
- Usually, the claims consist of a list of the most important features that will distinguish your invention from the rest of the inventions.
I hope I provided you with a practical way to approach the writing of your patent application.
:-)
You have to realize that in normal practice it takes about three years and a lot of study (and practice) to become a registered patent attorney. Then this qualification is only valid for one jurisdiction and you are still not allowed to represent clients in other jurisdictions.
So, drafting patent applications that would stand scrutiny by courts (and by your competitors) is a complex issue.
You may compare it to the skills for a GP, which also require a lot of study and practical experience. Would you - if you are ill - consult a doctor or would you try to do it yourself?
As a patent attorney specialising in chemistry and the life sciences, let me warn you that in decades of practice it has never taken more than ten minutes to work out how to work around (i.e. use the invention without infringing) a patent drafted by the scientist him/herself. Use a patent attorney, but keep costs down by writing a good description of what you think is new, why it is useful, why the prior art doesn't point to it, and exactly how to put it into practice.
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