Writing Your Patent Applications

• 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: 169-197

169

Your Intended Audience

It is vital for you and your coworkers to always keep in mind that the

goal of establishing your patent portfolio is to create something of value

that protects the technological foundation on which your market(s) and

product(s) are based. A portfolio that fails to achieve this goal is, at best,

weak, leaving inroads that allow your competition to encroach into what

you were hoping to be your space. At worst, you taught others how to

solve the problems that you encountered. us, your goal is to cra a

series of patent applications that will establish and protect your intellec-

tual property and your place in the market. How do you go about accom-

plishing this?

It is imperative to realize that patent applications are presentations

which, be they written or oral, have to rst identify and incorporate two

key components to be successful. e rst is to identify the intended audi-

ence. It is vital that the presenter fully understand why the members of the

12

Writing Your Patent

Applications

170 A Guide for Implementing a Patent Strategy

intended audience should be spending their valuable time on the presenta-

tion. Moreover, the presenter must clearly identify the technical expertise

of the audience. It is equally important that the material in the presentation

be properly aimed for the intended audience.

e second key component of a successful presentation requires the

author to decide what information has to be transmitted to the members

of the audience and to make sure that those members are not distracted

by irrelevant side issues, no matter how fascinating the author may

ndthem.

Before discussing the intended audience of patents and patent appli-

cations, let us illustrate the concept of intended audiences that you, as

a member of a technical community, commonly consider when mak-

ing presentations. Such presentations oen comprise three distinct

audiences.

Papers that are to be presented to members of scientic communities,

wherein the intended audience comprises individuals with expertise and

interest in a particular discipline generally delve in depth into the scien-

tic ndings that are being reported, while omitting business details and

speculative interpretations of the results. Alternatively, presentations made

to technical coworkers having expertise in a variety of disciplines that may

very likely dier from yours would not go into the same depth as presenta-

tions aimed at audiences with similar backgrounds to yours. Rather, they

would discuss, relatively briey, the ndings. More time would be devoted,

however, to discussing how coworkers could implement the ndings into

the project. Finally, presentations made to managers would focus on how

the ndings would impact product development.

e list of potential audiences is quite long. An article submitted for

publication in Physical Review B*would be written at a much more techni-

cal level than an article discussing similar material but being published in a

journal aimed at the educated lay public, such as in Scientic American. In

addition, it is important to present the information using the vernacular to

which the audience is comfortable. For example, readers of Physical Review

B are familiar with information presented using advanced mathematics.

In fact, members of that audience would be uncomfortable if the material

were presented without using mathematical formalism even if the infor-

mation content was precisely the same. Conversely, readers of Scientic

* A research journal published by the American Physical Society (APS) consisting of peer-

reviewed articles in condensed matter physics that are aimed at researchers.