Putting oneself in a strong position to respond to patent snags

On behalf of Kaufhold & Dix Patent Law posted in Patent Law on Thursday, August 17, 2017.

The patent process has many steps. Sometimes, a snag happens during one of these steps. This could include things like disputes arising over or challenges being leveled against their patent application or an aspect of it.

Whether an inventor is able to successfully overcome such snags can have significant impacts regarding their overall goals for their invention. Many things can impact how strong of a position an inventor is in to respond to difficulties that arise during the patent-seeking process.

One is the quality of the legal guidance they have when dealing with the snag. Another is how thorough and detailed of preparations were done during the earlier stages of the application process. Given these things, having the representation of a knowledgeable and experienced patent law attorney throughout the patent process can be critical for an inventor.

Also, what an inventor did during the process of developing their invention can have implications on what tools they have for responding to a patent application snag. Keeping thorough records when coming up with an invention could arm an inventor with evidence for showing a variety of things. This includes:

That they were the inventor of the new invention.
When they came up with the invention.
That their invention meets the various patentability requirements.

Having evidence on such things could help strengthen an inventors’ position when disputes or challenges come up in the patent process.

So, both during and after the development of a new invention, it can be important for inventors to think about what they can do to put themselves in the best position possible to deal with challenges that could come up when seeking protections, such as patent protection, for their invention.