United States Utility Patents

United States Utility Patents

Drafting patent applications and working to obtain United States patents is the core of the services provided by FLYNN IP LAW.

Many people new to the patent process are surprised at the amount of work that transpires after the patent application is filed. The length of time to obtain a patent varies widely depending on which technology group within the Patent Office is assigned the patent application. The process of patent examination frequently takes close to three years, but sometimes takes much longer. The process may be accelerated by a number of programs. For more details on the two most commonly used programs see the page on Accelerating Patent Applications.

After a substantive review of the pending claims, the patent examiner will usually object in a document called an office action that the claims are too broad relative to the prior art. The response to this office action may be to explain that the examiner is misinterpreting the prior art or the scope of the pending claims. Sometimes, the examiner is correct, or it is simply expedient to clarify the scope of the claims by adding some text to the claims to clearly avoid the cited prior art.

In the end, the asset that one receives from the patent process is the ability to prohibit others from practicing what is in the patent claims. Thus, much care and attention is given to seeking claims that advance the commercial interests of the client. In other words, seeking claims that prevent a competitor from using the claimed ideas and thus put the competitor at a commercial disadvantage.