Patent Engineering

Chapter 5

The Structure of a Patent

It is not just failures of the big-picture strategy that can reduce a patent’s value—legal technicalities can render your claims useless against your competitors. Patents that are not carefully planned and drafted may not give the patent owner any effective degree of protection of his intellectual property.

When formulating patent strategies, the structure of patents is even more important to consider. A poorly worded application can impede or prevent one from having the other patent applications in the portfolio allowed, or may compromise the quality of other patents that are ultimately issued. Remember that an invention can only be claimed once. Claim trees comprising the independent and dependent claims for all the conceived applications have to be carefully designed to ensure that the technology is adequately and appropriately protected.

Because of the possibility of diminishing, and even destroying, your patent’s value through seemingly insignificant mistakes during the writing of a patent application, writing a patent application is work for an expert, i.e., a qualified, licensed patent practitioner. Giving this job to someone who is unqualified is an expensive, high-risk/low-yield gamble. At best, a patent that was not well written will lack strength in court; at worst, it will not be issued at all. Filing an unsuccessful application costs every bit as much as those that lead to an issued patent, and presents your technology to the public—including ...