19-Month Clearance Milestone
In the context of clearing a prospective new product from the invisible type of the patent business risk of infringing (PBR-1), a milestone of increased confidence that is reached in the event that the search of the 19-month date is clear, from knowing that many of any possible rival patent applications filed before it will have been published and thus become findable by then.
19-month date
A date that can be calendared, chosen to occur conveniently 19 months after an inventor signs the inventor legal forms for a patent application to be filed, the calendared date to include a reminder to search against the filed patent application.
Abstract
A section of the specification of a patent document.
African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO)
An organization formed according to an international patent agreement.
ambient information
Ambient information is knowledge and experience readily shared by one’s coworkers about one’s industry, products, projects, etc.
art
A field of an invention or a patent application.
assign
A legal activity of transferring patent rights.
assignee
An entity to which a patent has been assigned; the assignee at the time a patent is issued is found in the formalities of the associated patent document.
Assignment form
An inventor legal form.
Attorney Docket Number
A number assigned internally within a company to keep track of filed patent applications.
authorized private exceptions (to confidentiality)
Disclosures about your company that are authorized to be made under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
authorized public exceptions (to confidentiality)
Disclosures about your company that are authorized to be made to the public.
Background
An optional section of the specification of a patent document.
barrier to entry
An obstacle that makes it difficult for an entity to enter a market.
Brief Description of the Drawings
A section of the specification of a patent document.
Business Analysis Review
A review for making a business decision of creating a new product.
Certificate of Correction
An addendum to a patent document, intended to correct errors.
challenge (a patent application)
(verb) The act of where, while a patent application is pending, a rival takes action to diminish its prospects of becoming issued as a patent.
child patent
A patent that results from a child patent application.
child patent application
A patent application filed in the same country as, and claiming priority from, another filed (“parentâ€Â) patent application, both in the same patent family.
claims
A part of a patent document that determines the legal coverage of a patent.
coinventors
A group of two or more persons who have cooperated in generating an idea that could be patented.
column numbers
Numbers along the top of a US patent document intended to identify columns of text.
commoditized
A state where a product or service lacks differentiation from rival products or services.
compensatory damages
In a court verdict finding patent infringement, a portion of the assessed money damages that the infringer has to pay and is attributable to the fact that the patent was infringed.
competitive convergence
A notion about the extent of competition by different entities in similar products and in patenting.
Continuation
A type of a child patent application.
Continuation-in-Part
A type of a child patent application.
contract patent searcher
A professional who can be hired to perform prior art searches.
cover page
The first page of a patent document.
cut off
(verb) What happens according to the Cut-Off Effect when the earlier disclosure prevents a later-filed patent application from becoming issued as a patent.
Cut-Off Effect
The phenomenon that a patent application is prevented from becoming a patent if, before it is filed, its disclosure has already been made in another way, such as by an earlier-filed patent application.
Cut-Off Time
The time that the earlier disclosure is made, which cuts off all patent applications filed afterward.
defensive patent strategy
A patent strategy intended to mitigate a product’s patent business risk of infringing (PBR-1).
defensive publication
A publication disclosing an idea made in a forum appropriate for preventing others to patent the idea.
Department of Commerce
A branch of the US Government.
dependent claim
A claim in a patent document that references at least one other claim.
design around
(phrasal verb) An act of designing a product with the further constraint of trying to avoid the legal coverage of a patent.
design patent
A type of patent, at least in the US, intended to protect shapes and the appearance of things.
Detailed Description
A section of the specification of a patent document.
differentiation
A state of a product or service being distinguishable from rival products or services, so it can be more attractive in the market place and/or command a higher price.
discovery
A phase during litigation in the US, where the opposite party has the right to look at a company’s documents and ask questions of employees.
Divisional
A type of a child patent application.
document number
A unique number for a patent application publication document, found in the formalities of the associated patent document.
drawings
A part of the specification of a patent document.
duty of confidentiality
An employee’s frequent obligation towards his or her employer.
duty of loyalty (legal)
An employee’s obligation towards his or her employer.
Employment Agreement
A legal agreement about the employment of an employee by a company.
Eurasian Patent Organization
An organization formed according to an international patent agreement.
European Patent Convention (EPC)
A set of international patent agreements.
Examination Clearance Milestone
In the context of clearing a prospective new product from the invisible type of the patent business risk of infringing (PBR-1), a milestone of increased confidence that is reached in the event that the Patent Office’s examination is clear, from knowing that many of any possible rival patent applications filed before it that a Patent Examiner would consider relevant would have been published by then and used in an Office Action against the filed patent application.
false marking, false patent marking
Patent marking that suggests that a product or process is protected by an issued patent or a pending application at a time when or in a manner that it is not.
Filing Clearance Milestone
In the context of clearing a prospective new product from the invisible type of the patent business risk of infringing (PBR-1), a milestone of increased confidence that is reached from knowing that any subsequently filed rival patent application should be cut off.
filing date
A date that a patent application was filed that resulted in a patent, found in the formalities of the associated patent document.
follower
A company that executes the business strategy of following.
following
A business strategy of competing against a leader with a product that is similar, even identical to that of the leader.
formalities
A part of a patent document that includes administrative data about the patent.
Freedom To Operate (FTO)
A state of having mitigated a product’s patent business risk of infringing (PBR-1).
Freedom To Operate (FTO) search
A patent clearance search.
future patenting
Patenting that has not been started yet.
Gulf Cooperation Council
An organization formed according to an international patent agreement.
idea submission number
A number assigned internally within a company to keep track of submitted IRFs; sometimes it is the same as the Attorney Docket Number.
independent claim
A claim in a patent document that does not reference any other of the claims.
Innovation Landscape
In a country, a web of people, education, culture, economic circumstances, institutions, and laws that relate to innovation.
innovator patent strategy
A patent strategy intended to mitigate a product’s patent business risk of being followed (PBR-2).
Intellectual Property
A regime of laws that protect products of the mind such as inventions.
inter partes review
A type of a revision proceeding in the US.
Interactive patent strategies
A patent strategy pursued by an entity that requires another entity to cooperate.
international patent agreement
An agreement between countries to cooperate about patents, and/or to recognize a patent application filed in one country as an acceptable priority patent application in another.
invalidated (for an issued patent)
The result of a revision proceeding to a patent, when the legal coverage of the patent is completely eliminated.
invent
The activity of identifying a problem and a solution for it.
Invention Reporting Form (IRF)
A company form that must be used by a company inventor to report his or her invention, so as to enable the patenting process to start.
inventor
A person who has an idea that could be patented.
inventor legal form(s)
A legal form that an inventor must sign for a patent application to become filed with the Patent Office.
invisible type PBR-1 risk
A type of the patent business risk of infringing (PBR-1), which arises from patent applications that have not yet been published, and therefore cannot be found by a patent search.
IP
A frequent abbreviation for “Intellectual Property.”
IP Alignment
The state where the legal coverage of an entity’s patent protects the entity’s product or feature.
legal deadline
A deadline by which an act must take place, or else it can no longer be done.
legal invalidity opinion
An opinion by a patent attorney, usually in writing, detailing why a claim of a patent should not be found valid.
legal non-infringement opinion
An opinion by a patent attorney, usually in writing, detailing why a proposed design avoids the legal coverage of a patent.
legal workaround
A workaround that legally avoids the patent it designed around.
license fee
A rent payable to the owner of a patent in exchange for permission to use the patent.
line numbers
Numbers in a US patent document intended to identify lines of text.
loss of IP
Loss of Intellectual Property rights, or loss of opportunity to obtain Intellectual Property rights.
market plane
A visualization device intended to show market transactions.
market share
A fraction of a relevant market that is captured by a product, over a given time.
money damages
In a court verdict finding patent infringement was committed, an amount of money that the infringer must pay to the owner of the patent for past infringement.
negative know-how
An accumulation of information about techniques that do not work well, or do not work at all, for building a product.
Net Present Value (NPV)
A statistic for determining an expected return if a contemplated new product is created.
nominal full term
The nominal time duration of when a patent is valid, prior to adjustments.
Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
An agreement between two parties to exchange information and to keep confidential the information they learned this way.
Nordic Patent Institute
An organization formed according to an international patent agreement.
not obvious to a person having ordinary skill in an art
A legal requirement for an invention to be patentable.
novelty
A legal requirement for an invention to be patentable.
novelty search
A patentability search.
Oath or Declaration
An inventor legal form.
Office Action
A document that a Patent Office prepares and sends to the patent applicant that details why it is not allowing a patent application to become a patent.
Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI)
An organization formed according to an international patent agreement.
parent patent
A patent that results from a parent patent application.
parent patent application
A patent application for which a child patent application has been filed.
past patenting
Patenting that has already been started.
patent
As a noun, a bundle of temporary legal rights; as a verb, the act of obtaining a patent.
patent agent
An individual qualified to represent a patent applicant.
patent applicant
An entity applying for a patent.
patent application
A document by which a patent applicant applies for a patent.
patent attorney
An individual qualified to represent a patent applicant, and who is also an attorney.
patent battles
Operations by entities that involve patents and can be adverse to other entities.
patent business opportunity to reserve future exclusive patent rights (PBO-1)
A business opportunity created for entities by a country’s Patent System.
patent business risks and opportunities
Business risks imposed on, and business opportunities created for, entities by a country’s Patent System.
patent business risk of infringing (PBR-1)
A business risk imposed on entities by a country’s Patent System.
patent business risk that inadequate or no returns will be generated (PBR-3)
A business risk imposed on entities by a country’s Patent System.
patent business risk that a new product will be followed or copied (PBR-2)
A business risk imposed on entities by a country’s Patent System.
patent certificate
An original document that is given by the Patent Office to the owner of a newly issuing patent.
Patent Classification System
A system used by a Patent Office for classifying various arts.
patent clearance search
A patent search intended to mitigate a product’s patent business risk of infringing (PBR-1) another’s patent.
Patent Committee
An internal company committee that chooses which of the reported inventions to patent.
Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)
An international patent agreement.
patent date
A date that a patent was issued, found in the formalities of the associated patent document.
Patent Department
A department within a company that deals with patents.
patent dispute
A dispute between entities that involves a patent and possibly also a product.
patent document
A document published by the Patent Office about an issued patent, copies of which are freely available to the public.
patent family
A group of patents and patent applications generated for the same invention or for related inventions, sometimes from the same patent application.
patent infringement
At least the act of making, using, selling, or offering to sell an invention that is legally covered by a patent, without permission from the owner of the patent.
patent invalidation search
A prior art search intended to establish that a particular patent should have been granted with less broad a legal coverage, or not at all.
patent landscape
A visualization device intended to show the coverage of multiple patents.
patent landscape search
A patent search intended to reveal a patent landscape.
patent litigation
A patent battle fought in a court between at least an owner of a patent and a producer or importer of a product.
patent marking
An act of indicating on a company product the numbers of company patents that cover the product.
patent number
A unique number for a patent, found in the formalities of the associated patent document.
Patent Pending
A status of a product, if it is covered by a pending patent application.
patent plane
A visualization device intended to show patent operations.
patent race
A scenario where two rivals file patent applications for substantially the same invention; the scenario is called a race because the first one to file usually wins.
patent reading prism
A visualization device intended to help the reader mentally separate a patent into its basic parts.
patent-related facts
Facts significant for determining patent rights.
patent search
A search for prior art references that are patents, and which are legally applicable for a specific purpose.
patent strategies
Strategies pursued by entities to mitigate their patent business risks and capitalize on their patent business opportunities.
Patent System
A system of laws and institutions within a country’s Innovation Landscape.
patent title
A title of a patent, found in the formalities of the associated patent document.
patent watch program
A program where typically automated patent searches are performed periodically in specified fields of interest.
patentability search
A search for prior art references intended to establish that a particular invention has not been disclosed before.
PCT application
A patent application filed according to the Patent Cooperation Treaty.
person having ordinary skill in an art
A hypothetical person postulated by law at least in the US, whose level of skill is used as a standard in making legal determinations.
Personal Patent Organizer
A private document intended to help organize one’s patent information.
post grant review
A type of a revision proceeding in the US.
Power of Attorney
One of the inventor legal forms.
prior art references
Reference documents having a date prior to a specific date and including a certain disclosure.
prior art search
A search for prior art references, which are legally applicable for a specific purpose.
priority
A notion that a later-filed patent application can be officially treated as if it had been filed earlier, on the same day as another earlier-filed patent application, if the later-filed patent application is for the same invention as the earlier-filed patent application.
priority patent application
A patent application from which another patent application claims priority.
Product Patent Report
An internal, usually attorney-confidential company report that lists which company patents cover a company’s product.
provisional patent application
A type of a tentative patent application that does not become a patent.
publication date
A date that a patent application was published, found in the formalities of the associated patent document.
publication delay
A time duration from when a non-provisional patent application is filed until it is published while pending.
published patent application document
A document published by the Patent Office about the published patent application, copies of which are freely available to the public.
punitive damages
In a court verdict finding patent infringement, a portion of the assessed money damages that the infringer has to pay and is attributable to the fact that the patent infringement was willful.
reexamination
A type of a patent revision proceeding in the US.
reference numerals
Numbers on drawings of a US patent document intended to indicate individual aspects of what is shown in the drawings.
References Cited
A listing, found in the formalities of a patent document, of prior art references that were considered in evaluating whether to allow the underlying patent application to become issued as this patent.
reissue
A type of a patent revision proceeding in the US.
rejection (for a patent application)
In an Office Action, a reason given as to why a pending patent application is not being allowed to become a patent.
revised (for an issued patent)
The result of a revision proceeding to the legal coverage of a patent.
revision proceeding
A proceeding intended to have a patent’s legal coverage revised.
revocation
A type of a revision proceeding under the European Patent Convention (EPC).
search scratchpad document
A private document intended to help organize one’s prior art search.
serial number
A tracking number assigned by the Patent Office to the patent application that was filed for a patent, found in the formalities of the associated patent document.
Solo patent strategy
A patent strategy pursued by an entity that does not require any other entity to cooperate.
specification
A part of a utility patent document that teaches the invention of the patent.
stealth mode
A way in which a company develops a new product secretly, with no specific announcements made during development.
Summary
An optional section of the specification of a patent document.
Technical Standard
An agreed upon specification for products offered by different entities, even rivals, in the expectation that the products will be technically compatible with each other.
third-party prior art submission
A usual method for challenging a pending patent application.
trade secret
Information that an entity tries to keep secret, and benefits from keeping it secret.
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
The US federal agency for granting US patents and registering trademarks.
utility
A legal requirement for an invention to be patentable.
utility patent
A type of patent in the US and in many other countries, intended to protect machines, processes, articles of manufacture, compositions of matter, and their improvements.
Venture Capitalists (VCs)
Entities that provide capital to start-up companies or small companies.
visible type PBR-1 risk
A type of the patent business risk of infringing (PBR-1), which arises from patents and patent applications that are findable by a patent search.
work around
(verb) See design around.
work product
The useful output of an employee’s work.
workaround
A design resulting from working around.
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
An organization formed according to the Patent Cooperation Treaty.
