Patent Drafting: A comprehensive guide to it

Patent drafting is the first part of process to achieve patent grant for your invention. The patent application draft that you prepare defines the every aspect of your invention to the patent examiner at the patent office. If the information about your invention is not clear in the patent draft it is of no use. Hence, the patent examiner will straight issue an office action to you. You then need to refile the patent application draft with proper addressing to office actions. However, it takes more time and money to refile again if your initiat patent application draft receives office action.

Thereby it becomes difficult, time consuming, and complex to get patent grant if your patent draft is not appropriate. Thus, if you want to learn the basics about patent drafting this article is the best source for you.

Also read: Patent Draft: What do you understand about it?

Patent Drafting: Why it is essential to know?

Patent drafting is creating a legal document that you file with the patent office. Since, it is a legal document thus you need to collaborate with a patent attorney. This makes the patent attorneys an essential part of drafting process. The attorney you are going to hire must understand your invention in detail, all the claims, usefulness, applicability, novelty, and other aspects of your invention.

Any mistakes on these parts will lead to the rejection of patent application draft by the patent office. Further, as per the USPTO, in last nine-year period less than 60% of applications filed with the USPTO received clearance. Also, those who received clearance only 20% of them were able to receive commercialization.

All this result you read above is because of mistakes somewhere while developing the patent draft of the patent application. Thus, it becomes important know the patent drafting aspects and way to draft it.

Also read: Provisional Patent Application: Benefits, and Limitations

How to draft a patent?

Hiring a patent attorney is the first step towards framing a comprehensive patent drafting process. But before you give the onus of producing the patent draft to your patent attorney, you need to sign an invention disclosure contract. This prevents the attorney from leaking the details about your invention to anyone else.

Once signed, you can now communicate every detail of the invention with patent attorney and start with drafting the patent application. Usually the attorney starts drafting the application taking in claims about the design of invention first. For that the attorney accurately finds the scope of your invention in draft claims. Then the draftsmen begins drawing of the invention to better explain the claims of your invention. In some of the cases, drawings are made of existing invention to show the difference between your invention and the existing one.

Ensure to have a proper discussion with the patent attorney and the draftsman during the entire patent drafting process. This will keep you updated on the developments of patent draft of your application. The scope of your patent claims might also change during the patent drafting and it is okay also if it is for betterment. The betterment means, changes are made to further differentiate your inventions from existing ones. It can also be done to clearly explain the applicability and use of invention.  

Also read: What is a Provisional Patent Application?

Components of  an ideal Patent Drafting Process

You can acquire two types of patent application viz. non-provisional and the provisional. Provisional application is the final patent grant which recognizes your invention. While the former, as name tells, is non-provisional in nature and you need to file the provisional application after acquiring it. Thus, both these types of patent applications have their own patent drafting requirements. Lets read them one by one.

Requirements of Non-provisional patent application draft

Section 37 CFR 1.77 of the USPTO mentions following thirteen sections to include in non-provisional patent application draft:

  1. The title of your invention
  2. A cross-referenced list of any related patent applications
  3. A statement about any federally sponsored R&D —if applicable
  4. The names of all parties if there is a joint research agreement
  5. References to a “sequential listing,” any tables or computer program listings, as well as any appendix submitted to a CD or storage device and the incorporation-by-reference list
  6. Background information on the invention
  7. A brief summary of invention
  8. A short description of the drawings
  9. A detailed description of invention
  10. The claim or claims
  11. An abstract of the disclosure.
  12. Sequence Listing, if not supplied on a CD or storage device
  13. An oath or declaration

Requirements of Provisional patent application draft

Section 37 CFR 1.16(d) of the USPTO mentions following sections to include in provisional patent application draft:

  • The name of all inventors
  • The creator’s residential address
  • The title of the invention
  • Name and registration number of attorney or agent and docket number (if applicable)
  • Correspondence address
  • List of any U.S. government agencies with interest in the application

Whom to hire for best patent drafting and filing service?

Importance of patent drafting is clear from the sections you read above. You can’t afford to do a single mistake during it or else face with the office actions. However, patent drafting and later patent filing is not a easy nut to crack. It is composed on n number of steps till you finally get the patent grant. Thus you need a professional patent attorney, who is exposed to patent laws of multiple countries. They can help you meet the challenges met in patent drafting during patent filing process. Thus, they make your foreign patent filing smooth and quick. That is why you need to choose us, “Patent Paralegal Force”

Our work force consists of trained and experienced patent experts who have in-depth knowledge of all the technical domains. Thus, taking our help will make you produce patent application with well written claims. Customer satisfaction is the priority for us, and hence. Our state-of-the-art tools help us to give the services you desire for. Read more about us here.

Other related articles:

Understanding “patent pending” meaning

Trademark assignments in India

Qualities of good patent drawings company

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