How to Invent and Protect Your Invention – A Guide to Patents for Scientists and Engineers

PREFACE: HOW THIS BOOK CAME TO BE AND FORWHOM IT IS WRITTEN xi
<p>ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xix</p>
<p>ABBREVIATIONS xxi</p>
<p>1. THE U.S. PATENT SYSTEM 1</p>
<p>1.1. What is a Patent? 1</p>
<p>1.2. Why Should You File A Patent? 5</p>
<p>2. ORIGINS OF U.S. PATENT LAW 7</p>
<p>2.1. A Brief History of Patent Law 8</p>
<p>2.2. The Fountainhead: The Constitution and the U.S. Patent System 9</p>
<p>2.3. Are Patents a Monopoly? 11</p>
<p>3. HOW TO INVENT: INTELLECTUAL ASPECTS OF INVENTING 12</p>
<p>3.1. On the Definition of Creativity 12</p>
<p>3.2. A Flaw in Patent Law 13</p>
<p>3.3. Patentable Creativity 14</p>
<p>3.4. Intellectual Requirements of Inventing 15</p>
<p>3.5. The Process and Product of Inventing 16</p>
<p>3.6. Pioneering versus Mediocre Inventions: The Touch of the Expert 17</p>
<p>3.7. The Importance of Industrial Experience 17</p>
<p>3.8. The Ultimate Goal: Innovation 18</p>
<p>4. A SHORT SUMMARY OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 20</p>
<p>4.1. Patents 21</p>
<p>4.2. Trade Secrets 21</p>
<p>4.3. Copyrights 22</p>
<p>4.4. Trademarks and Servicemarks 23</p>
<p>4.5. Other Types of Intellectual Property 24</p>
<p>5. REQUIREMENTS OF PATENTABILITY 26</p>
<p>5.1. What is Patentable? 26</p>
<p>5.2. Patentable and NonPatentable Subject Matter 27</p>
<p>5.3. The Three Classes of Patents 28</p>
<p>5.4. The First Law of Inventing 28</p>
<p>5.5. The Second Law of Inventing 44</p>
<p>5.6. The Structure of the Patent Document 48</p>
<p>6. HOW DOES THE PATENT PROCESS WORK? 55</p>
<p>6.1. The Notebook 56</p>
<p>6.2. The Provisional Patent Application 56</p>
<p>6.3. The (Regular or Nonprovisional) Patent Application 58</p>
<p>6.4. Prosecution: Convincing the Patent Examiner 60</p>
<p>6.5. Continuation, Continuation–in–Part, and Divisional Applications 64</p>
<p>6.6. Allowance and Issuance 68</p>
<p>6.7. Loss of Patent Rights 68</p>
<p>6.8. Challenges and Changes to Issued Patents 69</p>
<p>6.9. Summary of Chapters 5 and 6 73</p>
<p>7. INFRINGEMENT AND FREEDOM TO OPERATE 74</p>
<p>7.1. The Parable of the Knife 75</p>
<p>7.2. Types of Infringement 77</p>
<p>7.3. Infringement Suits 79</p>
<p>7.4. When to Sue an Infringer 80</p>
<p>7.5. Freedom to Operate 80</p>
<p>7.6. Prior Commercial Use Rights 82</p>
<p>8. BIOTECHNOLOGY, COMPUTER SOFTWARE, AND BUSINESS METHOD PATENTS 84</p>
<p>8.1. Biology Meets Patents 85</p>
<p>8.2. Computer Software Patents 89</p>
<p>8.3. Business Method Patents 90</p>
<p>9. WHO IS THE INVENTOR? 91</p>
<p>9.1. Conceiving an Inventive Idea 92</p>
<p>9.2. Joint Inventors 93</p>
<p>9.3. Naming Inventors on Patent Applications 95</p>
<p>9.4. Qualifications to Be an Inventor 95</p>
<p>10. OWNERSHIP 96</p>
<p>10.1. Selling, Licensing and Assigning Patents 97</p>
<p>10.2. Hired–to–Invent and Shop Rights 97</p>
<p>10.3. Inventing on Your Own Time 98</p>
<p>10.4. Non–Compete Agreements 98</p>
<p>10.5. The Bayh Dole Act 99</p>
<p>11. TRANSLATING IDEAS INTO ECONOMIC REWARD 102</p>
<p>11.1. The Costs of Patenting 102</p>
<p>11.2. Assessment 104</p>
<p>11.3. Selling and Licensing a Patent 110</p>
<p>11.4. Start–Ups, Spin–Outs, and Joint Ventures 112</p>
<p>11.5. Patenting and Marketing Departments; Technology Transfer Offices 113</p>
<p>11.6. Patent Valuation 114</p>
<p>12. FOREIGN PATENTS 116</p>
<p>12.1. Distinctive Features of U.S. Patent Law 117</p>
<p>12.2. The International Patent Cooperation Treaty 118</p>
<p>12.3. The European Patent Union 120</p>
<p>12.4. Other Foreign Patent Practices 121</p>
<p>12.5. Enforcing Patents Abroad 123</p>
<p>12.6. Choosing Whether to File a Foreign Patent Application 124</p>
<p>13. INNOVATION 125</p>
<p>13.1. Innovation Is More Than Invention 125</p>
<p>13.2. What Drives Innovation 126</p>
<p>13.3. The Law of Innovation 126</p>
<p>13.4. Companies and Innovation 127</p>
<p>13.5. The Innovation and Job Creation Relationship 127</p>
<p>13.6. Discovery Push versus Market Pull Innovation 128</p>
<p>13.7. Incremental versus Disruptive Innovation 128</p>
<p>13.8. Sources of Innovation 129</p>
<p>13.9. Innovation and Public Policy 129</p>
<p>14. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS 131</p>
<p>14.1. Is the Patent System Worth the Costs? 131</p>
<p>14.2. The Patent System Leads to Additional Research and Knowledge Creation 133</p>
<p>14.3. Fostering Competition 134</p>
<p>14.4. Results of Ignorance of the Patent System 135</p>
<p>14.5. How Law and Technology Yield Patents 136</p>
<p>APPENDIX 1: IMPORTANT FORMS 139</p>
<p>APPENDIX 2: SELF–ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS 177</p>
<p>GLOSSARY 196</p>
<p>INDEX 209</p>