Practical tips for obtaining patent protection

Engineers and scientists should research and document their inventions with a subsequent view towards getting patent protection. Keeping patents in mind at the earliest stages of invention will avoid wasted efforts and legal pitfalls which may foreclose patentability. A patent gives the owner of the patent the right to exclude anyone else from making, using, or selling the invention which is claimed in the patent. A patent consists of a specification describing the invention, usually with drawings, an abstract, and claims which set forth the limits of what the inventor claims as the invention. It is from the claims that the legal rights of exclusion are derived. Claims must be supported by the disclosure in the specification. For a patent to be valid the claimed invention is required by law to be new, useful, and unobvious. Patent applications are reviewed by patent examiners at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (the "PTO") to insure that these legal requirements are met. The Examiners communicate to the applicant by "Office Actions" in which the individual claims of the patent application are listed as being allowable or rejected, with reasons given by the examiner for his decision. The applicant is given the opportunity to respond by arguing the rejection or by amending the claims to overcome the rejections.