Patent Application Process Research Articles

Electronic non-text material in patent applications—some questions for patent offices, applicants and searchers

Taking as a starting point the actual and the perceived value of models of claimed inventions in the 19th century, the author explores the proposition that non-text disclosures of this type and, more significantly, their modern equivalents as 3D electronic images, as well as many other forms of electronic non-text material, will have an increasing place in fully communicating the inventions filed in 21st century patent applications. He argues that moving to a patent application process in which supplementary machine readable material can be supplied, and can form part of the total disclosure of an invention, without the need for it to be convertible to paper form, would increase intelligibility of invention disclosures of both existing problem areas such as genetic sequence patents, as well as forestalling increasing problems likely to arise in other areas as the 21st century unfolds. He notes that in this way the limitations inherent in having to describe 21st century inventions by using the 15th century technology of the printed page could be overcome. Analogies with the situation for certain types of trademark applications for registration, e.g. sound marks, are also noted.

New boundary constraints for elliptic systems used in grid generation problems

New boundary constraints for elliptic partial differential equations as used in grid generation problems in generalized curvilinear coordinate systems are proposed in this paper. These constraints, based on the principle of local conservation of thermal energy in the vicinity of the boundaries, are derived using the Green’s Theorem. They uniquely determine the so called decay parameters in the inhomogeneous terms of these elliptic systems. These constraints 1 Invention under US Patent application process. 1 are designed for boundary clustered grids where large gradients in physical quantities need to be resolved adequately. It is observed that the present formulation also works satisfactorily for mild clustering. Therefore, a closure for the decay parameter specification for elliptic grid generation problems has been provided resulting in a fully automated elliptic grid generation technique. Thus, there is no need for a parametric study of these decay parameters since the new constraints fix them uniquely. It is also shown that for Neumann type boundary conditions, these boundary constraints uniquely determine the solution to the internal elliptic problem thus eliminating the nonuniqueness of the solution of an internal boundary value grid generation problem with Neumann boundary conditions.

Disentangling Inventorship

Proper naming of inventors on patent applications is of paramount importance under US law. For example, failure to name an inventor (even unintentionally) can have far-reaching consequences, including calling into question the patent owner's ability to enforce the patent or transfer rights in the patent to others. Particular complications arise in the university context, because the legal standards for inventorship often diverge from researchers' expectations based on authorship of papers, participation in a research team, or service in a supervisory capacity An approach that aims to educate those involved about the legal standards set out by the Patent Statute and the US courts can alleviate many potential stumbling blocks. The first step in that regard is to implement a carefully-crafted invention disclosure form for use at the outset of the patent application process. One such form is attached as an Appendix to this article.

Beating the Cold

This article focuses on aspects of an onboard fuel-distilling system aims to curb the belch of hydrocarbons from a cool starting engine. According to an expert, feeding an engine high-volatility fuel during warm-up can halve the hydrocarbon emissions during a 30-minute drive. Ronald Mathews, along with Rudy Stanglmaier, a former University of Texas Austin doctoral student now with the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, and two Ford engineers, Wen Dai and George Davis, have patented an on-board distillation system that can refine fast-evaporating species from fuel while the engine is running and set aside the product as a reserve to be used at start-up. Among the key elements of the system is a level sensor in the reserve tanks. If the reserve falls too low, a control system in the engine central processing unit will trigger the distillation while the engine is running warm. The research for the technology, called the onboard distillation system, was supported in part by the Texas Advanced Technology Program, with Ford underwriting the patent application process.

The U.S. patent and trademark office's electronic application system

Development of a major electronic system at the USPTO is described. Called the Patent Application Management System (PAM), its aim is to automate the entire patent application process, including electronic input of patent applications, formalities, patent examination and prosecution, and publication. PAM has nine major functions to be automated and these are grouped into four subsystems. The paper describes the first of these subsystems. The planned for automation, the Electronic Application SYstem (EASY), which covers incoming document conversion, fee processing, application administration and examiner processing.

The Hungarian patent information policy : Bendzsel M. World Patent Information 15 (2), pp. 103–114.

Development of a major electronic system at the USPTO is described. Called the Patent Application Management System (PAM), its aim is to automate the entire patent application process, including electronic input of patent applications, formalities, patent examination and prosecution, and publication. PAM has nine major functions to be automated and these are grouped into four subsystems. The paper describes the first of these subsystems. The planned for automation, the Electronic Application SYstem (EASY), which covers incoming document conversion, fee processing, application administration and examiner processing.