Proper preparation of a patent specification is probably the most important part of any patent application process. The patent specification must not only meet certain substantive requirements such as fully describing the invention but also certain formal requirements including those relating to the format of the specification, the required sections, number of claims and so on.
Inventors sometimes decide to have a go at preparing and filing patent specifications themselves without the requisite knowledge, often resulting in the unfortunate situation of having their application rejected under examination, by which time it may be too late to rectify, resulting in loss of rights. A common mistake we often see is not including a good set of claims offering broad scope and a number of ‘fallback’ positions to defend against prior art. A further common mistake is not fully describing the claimed invention, a mistake that could prove to be fatal for the application.
If you have an invention you are considering protection, and have questions as to how best to protect your invention, visit our offices for an initial no-obligation consolation with a patent attorney to learn more about the patent application process.