How Not to Write a Patent


Reissues can be used to capture missing, forgotten, or narrower claims. In some cases, they can be used to broaden a patent.
Sometimes a prospective client calls in need of help prosecuting his or her patent application. Sometimes, the caller informs me that they wrote the patent application themself (a “pro se applicant”), that it has been rejected, and that they now…
International preliminary examination of an international application may be requested by filing a demand under Chapter II of the PCT to obtain a preliminary and non-binding opinion on the questions whether the claimed invention appears to be novel, to involve…
The Patent Office charges fees for receiving and processing patent applications. It levies filing, search, and examination fees for all non-provisional design patent applications and utility patent applications. These fees vary depending on whether the applicant is large, small, or…
A continuation-in-part (“CIP”) application is a special type of patent application. Today I’ll discuss what a CIP application is, and later this week I’ll go over reasons you might want to file a CIP or file an original utility patent…
The Supreme Court denied a petition for writ of certiorari in a patent case and then asked the attorney why he shouldn’t be sanctioned for his poorly-written brief.