How Not to Write a Patent


Have an invention you want to patent, or are you about to file a patent application? Change may be in the works at the USPTO. Today, the Senate reached a “tentative agreement” over a patent reform bill that has been…
A centralized listing of major Patent Application Initiatives is now available via the USPTO website that provides applicants with access to information on several patent initiatives designed to advance and support the examination process. Applicants now have a single website…
Recently decided Pacfic Coast Marine Windshields, Ltd. v. Malibu Boats, LLC established, perhaps predictably, that prosecution history estoppel is a doctrine that can be enforced in design patent litigation. Prosecution history estoppel is the practice of defending a patent litigation…
A continuation patent application is a type of continuing application. Yes, “continuation” does have a separate meaning from “continuing,” and each are proper terms in patent-ese. A few weeks ago I wrote about divisional applications, which are another type of…
I had a friend get in touch with me a while back about the legalities of web scraping. He found, and I’m finding too, a tremendous lack of information about web scraping. I think this is a result of there being so many strange ramifications depending on the many variables in the facts of each situation. I got interested in the legal issues involved in web scraping, and so I put together a hypothetical to test some of them out.
I am pleased to have been asked to give a presentation on technical writing, patent drafting, and patent prosecution at the University of Advancing Technology in Phoenix, Arizona on Thursday, July 12, 2012. I have made the presentation slides available…