Patents are legal, technical and business documents directed to several potential audiences, at the same time. The first consideration when writing a patent application is to know your audience.
Be Aware of Your Audience
- Corporate management and directors
- Potential investors and strategic partners
- Competitors
- Professional colleagues
- Examiners
- Patent examiners
- Judges and juries
Over the years, we’ve noticed many common mistakes made by inventors and inexperienced attorneys when writing patent applications. Here are a few:
Common Mistakes
- Using emphatic terms
- Using “hot button” statutory terms
- Using different words for the same concept
- Using legal jargon and abbreviations
Here are some examples of emphatic terms, statutory terms and abbreviations to be avoided:
Avoid
- Terms like “necessary, essential, critical” in favor of the terms “preferred, desirable”
- The using the words “maximize, minimize, optimize” in favor of “increase, decrease, improve”
- The using the words “always, never, any, all” in favor of “usually, seldom, at least some”
- The terms “obvious, person skilled in the art”. They are “hot button” statutory terms that have specific connotations you may not wish to be saddled with
- Using abbreviations like “e.g., i.e.” since they are often confused and few people even know what they stand for
- Using the term “invention!” (Look for a future blog post explaining why)
The mistakes we just outlined can undermine the process, giving others an easy path to work around your patent.
Most patent attorneys approach patent writing as a mechanical exercise and don’t know how, or don’t work hard enough, to bulletproof a patent. Cook Alex’s attorneys comb through your initial IP disclosures for words to be avoided, as well as terms or abbreviations that could work against you, to craft a formidable patent application that will be respected by all who encounter it.
Finding the right patent attorney to write and file a solid patent application is the key to protecting your intellectual property. Considering what your ideas or invention could be worth when they go to market; crafting a solid patent applications is a wise investment. You may schedule a free, and confidential, 20-minute phone consultation with a patent attorney here. Cook Alex offers our new clients a free, confidential, 20-minute phone consultation to discuss whether and how a solid patent application can help your business. No obligations. We invite you to schedule your call with a Patent Attorney from our firm today, just click right here to get get your process started.
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