The Structure of a Patent

• Author: Donald S. Rimai
• Profession: Recently retired from Eastman Kodak where he worked as a researcher and intellectual property manager in digital printing and adhesion science
• Pages: 17-35

17

Information Contained in a Patent Application

Certain precise information is required by a patent oce when submitting

patent applications. While the specic format of that information may vary

with each country, the information required is generally fairly similar. In

this book we will focus on the format of US patent applications. e reader

is referred to the United States Patent and Trademark Oce (USPTO) [1]

for more detailed information. It is important to remember that legal for-

mats and grammar, as required by patent oces, must be adhered to or

the application will be rejected. It is also important to remember that the

patent application, if successfully prosecuted, will result in an issued patent

with exactly the information contained in the application. In other words,

the writing of a patent application must be done precisely and correctly.

roughout all of this, it should be remembered that a patent application is

not a technical paper. However, the underlying premise as to why patents

exist is that countries such as the United States recognize that it is vital to

advance technology and oer inventors the ability to exclusively practice

their inventions for a dened period of time (presently 20 years from the

date of ling for new applications) in exchange for teaching others how to

2

e Structure of a Patent

18 A Guide for Implementing a Patent Strategy

practice the invention. It is also important to remember that 18 months

aer an application is submitted to the United States Patent Oce, it will

be published, thereby teaching everyone in the world all about the inven-

tion, irrespective of whether or not a patent is eventually issued. It is very

important to get the application process correct and not forget that the goal

is to protect your technology rather than just the present invention.

With this preface, let us list the sections that comprise a patent. ese

include:

a. Title. e title is generally quite brief (typically not more

than 7 words) and rarely very descriptive.

b. List of Inventors. ere are specic legal requirements as to

who is an inventor. Failure to get this correct can result in a

patent being declared invalid if challenged in court. is will

be discussed more fully in this chapter.

c. Field of the Invention. is section is short and simply relates

to the technological area of the invention and is used by the

patent oce to direct the application to the correct division.

d. Abstract. is is generally a restatement of the eld of the

invention and a brief description of the problem solved.

e. Summary of the Invention. is is also oen referred to as

a Brief Description of the Invention and is generally just a

restatement of the rst claim.

f. Background of the Invention. is is a very important sec-

tion. It is in this section that the problem that the present

invention solves is presented to the patent examiner. is

section also discusses the prior art and why that art has not

solved the problem. is topic will be discussed in more

detail later in this chapter.

g. Detailed Description of the Invention. is is the section in

which how the invention solved the problem or problems

discussed in the Background section has actually solved the

problem(s). What should and should not be included in this

section will be discussed in more detail later in this chapter.

h. Figures. ese are part of the Detailed Description of the

Invention. All aspects of the invention should be diagramed

in the gures. Figures can include the apparatus or varia-

tions of the apparatus, ow charts, graphs, chemical struc-

tures, and whatever else helps to illustrate the invention. It is

also appropriate, if necessary, to use gures to illustrate the

prior art. All components in each gure should be numbered