The terms filing date and priority date are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same. The filing date is the date when a patent application is first filed at a patent office. The priority date,…

The terms ‘author’ and ‘inventor’ are not synonymous. Generally, an author should be the individual(s) who wrote or contributed to writing a particular work. In the scientific world, authors of…

In the USA and some other countries, the assignees of a patent may have rights to require a license and obtain payment or other considerations for use of technology described…

The patent system can serve as an incentive for innovation, but it doesn’t exist simply to reward innovators.  Indeed, it explicitly does not reward all types of innovation. The central purpose of…

“Freedom to operate”, abbreviated “FTO”, is usually used to mean determining whether a particular action, such as testing or commercialising a product, can be done without infringing valid intellectual property…

Uruguay Round Agreement Since the Uruguay Round Agreements in 1994, many countries have enacted laws providing that the enforceable term of patent protection begins on the date of grant of a utility…

Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is arguably the most important and comprehensive international agreement on intellectual property rights. Member countries of the WTO are automatically bound by the agreement.…

Many countries accept national phase patent applications based on “world patent applications” (WO publications) made under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).  The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) maintains a database of WO published international…

There are five basic methods by which an entity may claim that it has a legal right to intellectual property, to the partial exclusion of the rights of others, in…

The specification, which is also called the disclosure, is a written description of an invention. The patent specification is drafted both to satisfy the written requirements for patentability, as well…

United States Exemplary publ. no. Code meaning US 2003/0157684A1 first publication of application US 2004/0038291A2 second or subsequent publication of application, requested by applicant US 2004/0185440A9 correction of error(s) in…

The term “after-claiming” (also called “late claiming”) refers to a patent prosecution strategy in which a patent applicant introduces new claims in a pending patent application after a disclosure or reduction…

Transitional phrases in patent applications are important, as they specify whether the claim is limited to only the elements listed, or whether the claim may cover items or processes that…

It is generally assumed that inventions claimed in a patent application are available to the public if a patent application is abandoned, after the patent expires, or if a patent…

The term “continuation application” refers to an application that is based on an original patent application (often referred to as a “parent” application), and has the same priority date and…

Continuity data is information about continuation applications that may have been filed based on a parent application. The USPTO PAIR web site is available to the public and discloses information about patent…