To Crush Your Competition A Robust Patent Is Fundamental Understand How and Why

You have an invention or an idea for an invention.

Invention development companies are private and public research companies that purport to help inventors develop, patent, and promote their ideas so they can be commercially licensed or sold. Learn About the Patent Process.

You could forfeit valuable patent rights. Track Your Invention's Progress.

If you decide to use an invention development organization, deal directly with the agent or patent attorney who will be handling your patent application.

Many invention promotion firms also may claim to perform patent searches on your idea. There are many good patent agents and attorneys that can help you. A strong patent is one that defines your invention broadly and but at the same time builds in fallback narrow invention.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office receives hundreds of thousands of patent applications each year. In fact, the Patent Office has recently proposed new patent rules to ease the Examiner workload. In light of the new rule, unless the patent applicant masters the complexities of patent law, the applicant might end up getting a weak patent instead of a strong one.

Imagine you have filed a patent application where you have defined your invention broadly as well as narrowly in ten succinct sentences in what are known as patent claims. These patent claims will be numbered 1 through 10. Claim 4 refers back to claim 3, which in turn refers back to claim 2. Claim 5 refers back to claim 1 or claim 4. In this example, say claim 5 refers back to claim 1. You, as patent applicant, have a chance to respond to the Examiner. This time, the Examiner softens a little and says, in a non-final rejection, that invention of claims 4 to 10 would be allowable as a patent if you rewrite claim 4 without a reference to claim 1, but continues to reject the broader invention of claims 1, 2, and 3. You can rewrite claim 4 as the Examiner indicated, as new claim 1, and obtain a patent with new claim 1. The Examiner will argue that original claim 5 referred back to original claim 1. You will get a patent with just one claim. If an infringer challenges your patent, and proves that your only claim is invalid, your entire patent would be thrown out.