Patent Application Risks and Mitigation

One of the most difficult aspects of a patent is the difficult legal terminology that makes up a patent claim. Yet, it is this patent claim that defines what you own when your patent is granted. A patent claim that is too broad will be rejected by the patent examiner, which means more expense, and may even ultimately cause your patent application to be denied. A patent claim that is too narrow may be granted easily by the patent examiner, meaning less expense. Unfortunately, later, when competitors start popping up with very similar designs, you may learn that your patent claims are too narrow to stop them.

We mitigate risk here by carefully communicating with you throughout the process. We begin this communication with the search and discussion of the features that we believe may be patentable. We continue the communication when we discuss the draft patent application and claims, and try to convey what we are trying to achieve with the claim language we have chosen.

A second risk with any patent application is whether we have adequately and completely disclosed the inventive concept. For this, we rely heavily on you and our communications with you. The information you provide to us, our search results, including any background that may be found in older patents, and your careful review of the patent application prior to filing are all very important to ensure complete disclosure.