If you have filed a provisional patent application, you are sitting on a ticking clock. The 12-month window between your provisional filing and your non-provisional deadline…

Before filing a patent application in a foreign country, inventors and companies with U.S.-based inventions must consider foreign filing license requirements and export control laws. Failing…

Learning how to mark patents correctly is one of the highest-return administrative jobs in a patent programme. It costs almost nothing to do, and skipping it…

A Request for Continued Examination (RCE) is one of the most commonly used tools in U.S. patent prosecution after a final office action. When the USPTO…

Patent maintenance fees are the most common way a valuable U.S. patent dies. Not litigation, not invalidation – a missed date. This guide covers the statutory…

Receiving a final office action from the USPTO is a critical juncture in patent prosecution. Unlike a non-final office action that opens a dialogue with the…

When two inventors claim the same invention, the patent system must determine who has the right to the patent. Historically, this was resolved through interference proceedings…

Patent term adjustment is the closest thing U.S. patent law has to compensation for lost time, and it is routinely miscalculated – sometimes by the Office,…

The plant patent is the oldest and narrowest of the American plant rights, and it is also the one least suited to modern breeding. Most work…

For inventors and businesses seeking patent protection in multiple countries, the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) provides a streamlined pathway to international patent protection. Filing a PCT…

Independent and dependent claims are easy to define and hard to use well. The work that actually decides whether a patent is worth anything is broadest…

Software patents are among the most complex and contested areas of patent law. Following the Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International,…

When inventors seek patent protection, they often face an important threshold question: should I file a design patent or a utility patent? Understanding the difference between…

A continuation patent application is one of the most powerful tools in a sophisticated patent portfolio strategy. Continuations allow you to pursue additional claims based on…

The patent prosecution process is the journey your patent application takes from initial filing through USPTO examination to final grant. Most applicants experience it as a…

Before investing thousands of dollars in a patent application, every inventor should conduct a thorough patent novelty search — also called a patentability search — examining…

The examiner’s letter has not changed much in fifty years, but what it says has. Anyone tracking office action trends across the last decade has watched…

Writing strong patent claims is arguably the most critical skill in patent law. The claims define the legal boundaries of your patent protection — they determine…

One of the first decisions every inventor faces is whether to file a provisional or non-provisional patent application. This choice affects your patent timeline, costs, and…

Every argument you make, every amendment you submit, and every statement you offer to distinguish prior art during patent prosecution becomes a permanent part of your…