You may wonder how to name your invention and what rules the US Patent Office requires for the patent title.

How to title your patent might seem simple at first, but it really can be difficult. Like a book, you probably have the main idea for your story. When it comes down to naming your invention, this can be very challenging. While your patent attorney can help you choose the best title for your patent application, here are some guidelines to help you understand the process better.

Guidelines for naming your invention – the patent title.

You probably want your title to be somewhat unique. This can help to market your product and excite your consumers.

In addition, you want the Patent Office Examiner to approve the title for your patent application. You want to make a good first impression because this will be one of the first things that the Examiner sees when looking at your patent application.

If the applicant does not use a satisfactory title, at the time of allowance for the patent application, the examiner may change the patent title by an examiner’s amendment.

What are the Patent Office requirements for the title?

The patent title should be descriptive of the invention to which the claims are directed. If the title is not considered descriptive, the Patent Office Examiner may require a new title.

The patent title must not exceed 500 characters in length and must be as short and as specific and descriptive as possible. The title should be one that is easily searchable using a few key words during a patent search.

The Examiner may require a change to the patent title that results in slightly longer titles. Typically, any loss to a brief title will be more than offset by the gain in its descriptive value in indexing, classifying, and searching.

Certain words such as “new,” “improved,” “improvement of,” and “improvement in” are not considered to add any value or adequately describe an invention. Therefore, these types of words should not be included in the title of the invention, and often will be required to be removed from the title before the Examiner will allow a patent to issue. Likewise, articles such as “a,” “an,” and “the” should not be included as the first words of the title.

The Patent Office also has restrictions on the type of characters that can be used in the patent title. Any character that cannot be captured and recorded in the Patent Office’s automated information systems may not be reflected in the US Patent Office records. Use the US PTO Character Checker to automatically check whether the characters in your patent title are valid.

Where should you include the title of your invention?

The patent title should be included on the Application Data Sheet (ADS), and should also appear as a heading on the first page of the specification of the patent application.

When applying for a patent, it is best to hire an attorney to guide you through the process, including helping you decide on a good and sufficient title to your patent. Here are some tips to find a good patent attorney. I hope this helped you understand the patent title.

The Patent Application (Part II) –Background Section

From Denver Patent Attorney Mark Trenner

The Background section of a patent application is intended to give the reader (first, the Patent Office Examiner, then perhaps others who may read your patent application) a general understanding of the technology space of your invention. Unfortunately, I’ve seen many patent applications with Background sections that are overdone.

How can you overdo the Background section of a patent application? Easy – by stating too much. You might be thinking “but if it’s just background, how can that hurt?” It can hurt, because the person writing the Background section may think that everything they are saying is “background” material or “prior art” (that is, already known or in the public domain). But often, the inventor has special knowledge of their field that may not necessarily be known by others. For example, most engineers and scientists read a wide variety of technical articles in their field of study, attend conferences, discuss their technology with other scientists with specialized knowledge. And those engineers and scientists “synthesize” this knowledge. Thus, what may seem known or obvious to an engineer or scientist, may not be generally known by others, perhaps not even by other engineers or scientists. Indeed, it is this synthesis of knowledge that leads to many great inventions.

So what do you include in a Background section of a patent application? As little as possible. Set the stage for your invention, by saying what is indisputably in the public domain and no more. For example, it is generally acceptable to state that computers exist if your invention is related to a computer. But if you say too much in the Background section of your patent application, this may be considered an admission that your invention was already known, or obvious in view of what is commonly known.

As I said in the introduction, it is best to work with a patent attorney when preparing a patent application. And if your patent attorney tells you that “the less said, the better” at least as it applies to the Background section of a patent application, heed their advice.

The Patent Application (Part I) – Introduction

From Denver Patent Attorney Mark Trenner

When you file for a patent for an invention, the Patent Office does not issue a patent immediately. In fact, it can take several  years to have a patent issue. And the Patent Office does not issue patents for all inventions. The invention must be patentable subject matter, and must be unique and non-obvious over prior inventions and other products in the public domain. But this article is not about the patent process, but rather the patent application.

To start the patent process, you must first file a patent application with the Patent Office.

A patent application is a technical document that describes your invention. The patent application includes several parts, that I will attempt to describe in this multi-part series. Keep in mind, however, that you should not attempt to write your own patent application unless you have considerable experience doing so (in which case, you are probably not reading this article).

Patent applications are best written by patent attorneys. Why? Because a patent application is more than just a technical paper that engineers and scientists are comfortable writing. A patent application must meet certain legal requirements in order for the Patent Office to grant a patent. If you get any of these requirements wrong, any patent that issues may not provide sufficient legal protection for your invention. In addition, some deficiencies cannot be corrected after the initial filing of a patent application in the Patent Office.

Instead, this article series is meant as a high-level overview of the patent application, and the different sections of a patent application, so that when you work with a patent attorney and he or she asks you to review a draft of the patent application, you will have a better understanding of what exactly it is you are looking at.