How to file a U.S. design patent application? Protecting ornamental designs is one of the crucial aspects of manufacturing companies at a global level today. Since the products consistently are driven through customers’ changing requirements, their respective designs improved. It is understood that design patents provide protection of the ornamental design or shape of the product for some years in a given jurisdiction. However, it Is equally crucial to understand what portion of the design needs to be protected. Quality design patent applications require less time to get approved from the patent office as compared to a utility patent. However, components within the product to be protected have to be clearly laid out in terms of views to be compliant with USPTO requirements. Some key points to be taken care of while filing a design patent include: Understanding the product based on its uniqueness ornamentally. Taking care of internal components within the product to be claimed or not Defining all claimable parts of the product and discriminating with the non-claimable part Providing USPTO compliant shading, lines, color distinctions of claimable part from non-claim part Including necessary ornamental representation of parts of the product Complying to 37 CFR requirements laid out by USPTO Like in utility patent applications, the design patent applications are subject to the examiner’s review of prior patents and literature available in the market. Hence, it is recommended to conduct a thorough design patent search based on keywords, classes (Locarno, Domestic design classes), and their combination to ensure the patent application is not susceptible to easy rejection from USPTO. PatentManiac provides high-quality design patent filing services with competence, precision, and quick turnaround time. In case of any questions, please reach out to us at mail@patentmaniac.com or visit www.patentmaniac.com
How to Get a Patent in the US?
The United States is the innovation hub for various technologies based inventions that are filed with the patent office (USPTO) directly or with a foreign priority. Every year, hundreds of thousands of patent applications (Provisional or Non-provisional) are filed with the U.S. patent office. Each application covers a novel idea that requires a thorough inspection by examiners of the patent office before issuing a patent. It is to be understood that an idea’s inception needs to follow a set of procedural steps through an experienced patent attorney, who works along with you to interact and prepare the patent application to be accepted by the U.S. patent office. One wrong step can sabotage a complete patent application and lead to thousands of dollars loss. Hence, from an inventor or company standpoint, it is highly recommended to follow each step comprehensively in order to get a patent on your invention. The steps that are pillars to a strong patent application include: I. Conducting a Patent Search on the Idea – Whether your invention is a novel method, product of both, it is very much important to review what is there in the market (normally termed as Prior Art Search) that is exactly similar or nearly similar to your invention. This step is crucial and acts as a guiding path for polishing your invention and the patent application in general. II. Choosing Patent Application Path – Based on the Patent Search conducted, the patent attorney can discuss the position of your invention with the degree of closeness of the Prior Art identified. Once it is discussed, the attorney can advise to follow one out of provisional and non-provisional. The provisional application gives 1 year to the inventor to improve and finalize the invention so that it doesn’t look similar to what has been identified in the patent search. Otherwise, Non-provisional is recommended. III. Drafting the Patent Application – This is the most crucial and important step in the complete process which defines boundaries in your invention. A carefully written patent application allows easy prosecution and shall cover the boundary of your invention without breaching anyone else. The patent attorney shall write and review the patent application and take inputs from the inventor at each step, so that there is no technical or legal limitation to the claims of the invention. Hiring a right set of legal experts to draft a patent application is really important as it directly controls the patent prosecution cost. IV. Filing the Patent Application – Once the patent application is drafted and reviewed by the patent attorney and inventor, it is ready to be filed with the patent office (USPTO). The U.S. patent office accepts either E-Filing or Paper-filing via a licensed patent agent or attorney registered to practice with the U.S. patent office. It is to be kept in mind that each way of filing the patent application requires the inventor to provide certain information to the patent agent or attorney like Name, Address, Financial Status (for discounted patent filing fee). Once all these details are filled on your behalf by the appointed patent agent or attorney, you receive a filing receipt that the patent agent or attorney will share with you, along with all other documents received from the U.S. patent office. V. Publication of the Patent Application – From the day of filing the patent application, the U.S. patent office publishes the patent application for view to the public within 18 month(s) from the day of filing. This is to ensure that the patent application is open in public domain and can be reviewed directly. Sometimes, for specific technical area(s) that are related to national security, the patent application is not published but issued directly as a patent. VI. Examination of the Patent Application – The published patent application is now allocated to an art unit, which is a technical department of patent examiners who are subject matter experts. This assists in reviewing the application at pace. If the patent examiner allocated from the art unit with the U.S. patent office finds your invention not novel, he/she can issue an objection to the patent application (specifically to the claims of the patent application) and send it over to the appointed patent attorney to respond within a time frame allocated. Based on the type of objection, the patent attorney might consult with the inventor and file a response to the office action with agreement or denial of objection raised. A couple of such office actions are generally common with a patent application. However, that cannot hold true for each idea. VII. Issuing a Patent– Once the examiner and patent attorney have agreed or come to a common standpoint on the patent application, the patent office approves a patent to the inventor and gives the inventor rights to the invention for a period of 20 years from the date of filing. In case of any queries, please reach PatentManiac at mail@patentmaniac.com.
Patent Drafting Strategies – What to follow and What to avoid?
Patent drafting has been one of the most crucial exercises for any IP professional to understand and develop skills around. Quality patent application ensures client’s invention boundaries are well protected and infringement levels are low. There are numerous guidelines that advise on steps to be followed while writing a professional patent application draft but they radically change from technology perspective and maintaining invention boundaries. There are many rulebooks but entrusting one of them over the other might not be a good idea. Patents are written and prosecuted manually, hence the patent office perspective sometimes does not align with the attorney’s viewpoint. Hence, we receive office actions. Although we can lay out rules for various sections of the patent application, it is evident that a patent practitioner shall understand and develop skill-sets pertaining to the technology area and write applications accordingly. Some of the key points include: Writing quality claims with special attention to independents – It is the most crucial part of the overall patent application and needs to be strategized concerning 35 U.S.C 101, 102, and 103. Hence, the invention shall be classified within a process, system, article of manufacture, and composition of matter. Secondly, the invention needs to overcome novelty and obvious parameters to avoid rejections. Enabling claims property– This is an essential portion of the specification part and requires all claims (Independent and Dependent) to be explained through one or more essential embodiments. This makes your invention more clear during the examination procedure and helps in the prosecution stage. However, it is recommended that one should also explain alternative embodiments along with the essential ones to cover defensive publication as well Enabling Embodiments with Figures – A mandatory and not unconventional way is to explain through figures and flow diagrams each embodiment in the description is quite essential while writing the detailed specification. It is to be understood that each embodiment shall be explained in order, along with non-enabled alternatives as well. This helps to visualize the invention with variation in scope and avoids infringement on your patent-based products or services by your competitors. Full-filling Best Mode Requirement-Conventional but a good approach is to explain the best mode in which your invention would work. This exclusively enables the parameter where your invention was conceived. Overcoming 37 CFR Rejection – This section is totally based on the supporting figures being made compliant with the patent office rules and labeling appropriate elements of the figures in the description section. Non-labeled or uncovered labeled sections both correspond to 37 CFR-based rejections. It is recommended to consider and adapt any PTO based ruling on a technology area and develop claim strategy accordingly. Sometimes, one shall consider standard essential patent (SEP) based infringement as well apart from prior art(s) identified and considered while writing the claim section. Some claim writing tricks that shall be helpful include: Developing system/method-based diagrams to depict and categorize essential elements/steps from the non-essential. Focus and elaborate more on essential elements/steps. Understand to draft patent applications driven towards system or method oriented based on prior arts and basic SEP analysis. Develop a chain of dependent claims strategically, i.e. Independent-dependent, dependent-dependent accordingly. Try not to be repetitive in claims, i.e. avoid repeating system dependents in method independent and vice-versa. Follow and consider ruling-based guidelines (eg: Alice ruling in software etc.) to improvise on claim language and avoid rejections. Try to write a claim in a way that it is written more on a global standard for considering multiple country-based patent filings.