In order to obtain a patent, you must go through the patent application process. In this lesson, we'll talk about the anatomy of a patent, we'll spend some time talking about patent claims, then we'll go through the examination process; what's involved, how long it may take, and then we'll wrap up with describing some of the costs associated with obtaining a patent. In terms of the anatomy of a patent, your application will have many components. You'll have an abstract, you'll have a section where you give drawings and depictions of your invention, you'll have a section where you talk about the field and the background of your invention, then you'll summarize the invention broadly. One of the most important components of the patent application is the detailed description of the invention. In that section you will walk through and excruciating detail, the components of your invention, how it works, how to make it, use it. Then finally, you'll have a section for your patent claims. We're going to get into detail on patent claims, but this is the most important part of your application because it actually spells out what you are protecting. This is a depiction of an Apple patent, it gives you a good idea of what a patent looks like, but also highlights some of the components of a patent. You'll see in the top right-hand corner, you have the patent number and the date the patent was issued. You also have in the left-hand side of the patent application, the title of the invention, a listing of the inventors, when the application was filed, you'll see a drawing included in the patent application, as well as the abstract. Also, if you look in the right column, you see the section that says, references cited, and this is the beginning of what we call prior art. These are publications, other patents, other public disclosures that relate to the invention that were used in assessing whether this particular invention should obtain a patent successfully. Now let's talk about patent claims. In this depiction you can see the fence divides the sidewalk from the grassy area, and we have here patented in the grassy area. What patent claims do is draw a fence around your invention. Everything that's within the patent claims is protected, everything outside of the patent claims is not protected. In patent claims, as you're looking at a patent application, they are essentially the numbered paragraphs at the end of the patent application. These numbered paragraphs, spell out the meets and bounds, the fenced area of your invention. The patent application process. We'll use this chart to just walk through how the patent application process works. First, you may file a provisional patent application. In the US, that's a concept that allows you to lock in your filing date, and later you will file a more detailed non-provisional patent application. In other parts of the world, the non-provisional patent application is where the patent process usually begins. When you file your non-provisional patent application, it may take upwards to three years before you ever hear anything back from the examining office. What typically happens is, the examining office will look at your patent application and they look at it in view of all of the prior art, all of the publications, and other patents, and other uses of technology to assess whether your patent application and the invention describing your patent application meets the statutory standards of new, useful, and non-obvious. If the answer to that question is yes, the patent examining agency will communicate back to you and say, ''Hey look, your application has been approved, you pay your government fees, and you obtain your patent." That whole process takes about a year. Now, what's more likely to happen is after you file your patent application and you wait the three year period before hearing back from the examining agency, the examiner will find one or more reasons to reject your patent application and they'll send a rejection communication to you. Now, this rejection doesn't mean that you're not going to get a patent, this rejection essentially says the examiner has found some prior art, or the examiner has found some reason why your patent application doesn't meet those statutory standards. You'd then have an ability to respond to that rejection. You can either distinguish your invention from the prior art. You can amend your application to carve out your invention in a more narrow way. You file that response to the examining office. If the response is adequate and the examiner is convinced that yes now you do have an invention that's not precluded by prior art, your application will be approved. You'll go through the process of paying your government fees and you have a patent. Again, what's more likely to happen is the examiner will continue this back and forth. The examiner may not be persuaded by your initial response, or the examiner may find additional prior art that precludes your invention from obtaining a patent. This back and forth, we'll continue between you and the examiner for months. It can be a year, it can be longer depending on what prior art exist, depending on how crowded the technology area that your invention exist. Once that process has completed and you've convinced the examiner that your invention should be patented, you'll pay your government fees and you'll get your patent. If you aren't able to convince the examiner that your invention should be patented, then this process will end in a final rejection from the examiner and if you can't overcome that, unfortunately, you won't be able to obtain a patent. Overall, this process can take anywhere from three to five years from the time you filed your non provisional patent application to the time that you actually obtain your patent. It's important as a young entrepreneur and you're thinking about gaining patent protection, to know that it's a long game. It's not something that you'll get very quickly. It's years in the making but one of the benefits of seeking patent protection is the ability to say on your inventions that patent pending while the patent application process is underway. This allows investors to understand that you're seeking patent protection. It conveys a strong message in the marketplace that you have IP, intellectual property that you're seeking for this invention, for this product, and so there's huge benefits for applying for a patent. But you should keep in mind that it's not a quick process it's something that will take years to complete. Because it's a long process, it's also an expensive process. Getting a patent is one of the most expensive forms of intellectual property and because it's not an easy process, as I said, oftentimes it involves some serious back and forth between the inventor and the patent examining agency. Your job as the inventor is to persuade this patent examining agency that your invention is different, non-obvious, and useful in light of all the prior art that's out there. Oftentimes this requires the services of a skilled patent attorney, which can be expensive. For very easy, minimally complex inventions that can easily run from $5,000 - $7,000 for the service of a patent attorney. The more complicated your invention is, or the more crowded the technology space is those expenses can go up. For very, very complex invention, it can easily be more than $15,000 in patent attorney fees to go through the patent application process. As an entrepreneur who you are thinking about patent protection, you want to think about how long the process may take, but also the expenses that are associated with going through the patent application process. To summarize, the patent application must describe your invention in great detail and there are many components or the patent application from the abstract to the drawings, the field and background or the invention. The summary of the invention, as well as a detailed description of the invention. Most importantly is the patent claims. Those are those numbered paragraphs at the end of your patent application that define the scope of your rights and the invention. Remember the fence depiction, everything that's covered by the fence is patented. If it's not covered by the fence, it's not patent. The patent claims are what dictate your rights in the invention. The patent application process is not a short process it can take years, and it can be quite expensive especially if you involving the services of a patent attorney. Keep all this in mind as you're thinking about seeking patent protection.
