Nolo's Patents for Beginners

ISBN-13: 9781413328684

Media Type: Paperback(Tenth Edition)

Publisher: NOLO

Publication Date: 06-29-2021

Pages: 288

Product Dimensions: 7.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

San Francisco Patent Attorney David Pressman is a graduate of Penn State University (BSEE) and George Washington University Law School (JD) where he was on the Law Review. He has over 40 years of experience in the patent profession — as a patent examiner for the U.S. Patent Office, a patent attorney in corporate and private practice, a university instructor, a columnist, and as author of the Patent and Trademark entries to the World Book Encyclopedia. His books have charted the path for over 300,000 inventors. Dave is also co-author of How to Make Patent Drawings (with Jack Lo), Patent Pending In 24 Hours (with Rich Stim), and Patents For Beginners (with Rich Stim). Attorney Richard Stim specializes in small business, copyright, patents, and trademark issues. He is the author of many Nolo books, including Music Law: How to Run Your Band's Business, Patent, Copyright & Trademark: An Intellectual Property Desk Reference, and Profit From Your Idea. Stim regularly answers readers' intellectual property questions at Dear Rich: An Intellectual Property Blog.

Table of Contents

Your Legal Companion 1

1 Patents and Intellectual Property Law 3

What Is a Patent? 4

The Three Types of Patents 5

Patent Rights 6

The Requirements for Obtaining a Patent 7

How Long Do Patent Rights Last? 8

How Patent Rights Can Be Lost 9

Intellectual Property-The Big Picture 10

Trademarks 11

Copyright 13

Trade Secrets 17

Unfair Competition 22

2 Qualifying for a Patent 23

Requirements for a Utility Patent 24

Statutory Classes 26

Utility 31

Novelty and Prior Art 33

Nonobviousness 43

Design Patent Requirements 55

Plant Patents 59

3 Invention Documentation 61

The Value of Documentation 62

Lab Notebook 64

Invention Disclosure 67

Trade Secret Considerations 69

4 Patent Searching 71

Principles of Patent Searching 72

Hiring a Patent Searcher 73

Do-lt-Yourself Searching 76

5 Reading and Writing Patents 91

Elements of an Issued Patent 93

Invention and Inventor Data 93

Specification 94

Claims 108

Abstract 115

Drawings 118

Preparation of a Patent Application 119

Specification (including Description, Claims, and Abstract) and Drawings 120

Electronic Filing (The EFS System) 131

6 Patent Prosecution and the PTO 137

Patent Prosecution: The Road to Allowance 139

Responding to a Final Office Action 152

Additional Application Issues 157

Design Patent Prosecution 161

7 Patent Ownership 163

The Inventor Is Initial Owner of Patent Rights 164

Employee Inventions 165

Joint Owners 172

8 Patent Infringement 177

What Is Patent Infringement? 179

Who Can Sue, Who Can Be Sued? 188

Stopping Patent infringement 189

Defenses to Patent Infringement 198

Ending Disputes Without a Lawsuit 206

9 International Patent Law 211

Introduction to Foreign Patent Treaties and Laws 212

Putting It Together. The Most Common Route for U.S. Inventors Seeking Foreign Patent Coverage 218

The Paris Convention and the One-Year Foreign Filing Rule 218

The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) 221

European Patent Office (EPO) 225

Locating Foreign Patent Agents 226

10 Help Beyond This Book 233

Inventor Resources 234

Patents and Intellectual Property Resources 235

Working With an Attorney 237

Glossary 241

Index 255