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Under our patent system the Federal Government grants an inventor certain exclusive rights to an invention for a limited time in exchange for a full disclosure of that invention. The full disclosure must be such as to enable others to practice the invention when the inventor's right to exclude expires.
The issued patent contains both a disclosure of the invention and a definition of the subject matter to which the inventor has exclusive rights. The disclosure appears in the specification and drawings. This definition appears in the patent claims.
The patent system and our representation of our clients in patent matters both focus for the most part on the claims. The rights that may be asserted in licensing and litigation, and which must be avoided to remain free of infringement are defined by the claims. The scope and contours of a patent's claims are shaped to their final form during the initial drafting and subsequent prosecution of the patent application before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The claims are typically fixed in their final form years before litigation and licensing come into the picture. Care and skill are required in the drafting of patent documents, and particularly claims. Such care and skill is exercised at the interface between the law and technology, and must be informed by a grasp of both. Belasco Jacobs & Townsley, LLP drafts and prosecutes both utility and design patents in front of the US Patent and Trademark office and works with foreign associates for patent protection in foreign countries. Belasco Jacobs & Townsley, LLP also represents clients in related Patent Office proceedings such as Interferences, Reexaminations and Reissues and in the California State and United States Federal Courts. |
