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| Patentability requirements and related concepts |
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Standards
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Apatent application orpatent may containdrawings, also calledpatent drawings, illustrating the invention, some of itsembodiments (which are particular implementations or methods of carrying out the invention), or theprior art. The drawings may be required by the law to be in a particular form, and the requirements may vary depending on the jurisdiction.
Under theEuropean Patent Convention,Article 78(1)EPC provides that a European patent application shall contain any drawings referred to in the description or the claims.[1] Drawings are therefore optional.Rule 46EPC specifies the form in which the drawings must be executed.[2]
TheEuropean search report is drawn up in respect of a European patent application on the basis of theclaims, with due regard to thedescription and any drawings.[3] In addition, the extent of the protection conferred by a European patent or a European patent application is determined by the claims, with the description and drawings being used to interpret the claims.[4]
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The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is an international agreement administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) that simplifies the process of seeking patent protection across many countries. By filing a single "international" patent application, an inventor can achieve the same legal effect as filing separate national applications in all PCT member states. This unified procedure allows applicants up to 30 months from their initial filing date to decide in which specific national or regional offices to pursue a patent, thus providing valuable time to assess market potential and defer significant costs. The ultimate decision to grant a patent, however, remains with the individual national or regional patent offices during a later "national phase".
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In theUnited States, the applicant for a patent is required by law to furnish a drawing of the invention whenever the nature of the case requires a drawing to understand the invention. This drawing must be filed with the application. This includes practically all inventions except compositions of matter or processes, but a drawing may also be useful in the case of many processes.[6]
The drawing must show every feature of the invention specified in theclaims, and is required by the U.S.patent office rules to be in a particular form. TheUnited States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) specifies the size of the sheet on which the drawing is made, the type of paper, the margins, and other details relating to the making of the drawing. The reason for specifying the standards in detail is that the drawings are printed and published in a uniform style when the patent issues, and the drawings must also be such that they can be readily understood by persons using the patent descriptions.[6]
No names or other identification are permitted within the "sight" of the drawing, and applicants are expected to use the space above and between the hole locations to identify each sheet of drawings. This identification may consist of the attorney's name and docket number or the inventor's name and application number and may include the sheet number and the total number of sheets filed (for example, "sheet 2 of 4"). The following rule, reproduced fromtitle 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations, relates to the standards for drawings:[6][clarification needed]
From 1790 to 1880 in the US,patent models were required. A patent model was a scratch-builtminiature model no larger than 12" by 12" by 12", approximately 30 cm by 30 cm by 30 cm, that showed how an invention works. Some inventors still willingly submitted models at the turn of the twentieth century. In some cases, an inventor may still want to present a "working model" as an evidence to proveactual reduction to practice in aninterference proceeding. In some jurisdictions patent models stayed an aid to demonstrate the operation of the invention. In applications involvinggenetics, samples of genetic material or DNA sequences may be required.
The United States patent law was revised in 1793. It stated that the Commissioner of the USPTO could ask for additional information, drawings, or diagrams if the description is not clear. By then, the rate of patent grants had grown to about 20 per year and the time burden on the Secretary of State was considered to be too burdensome. Patent applications were no longer examined. Patents were granted simply by submitting a written description of an invention, a model of the invention, if appropriate, and paying a fee of $30 then, and now $1000 in 2006 US dollars.
Inutility anddesign patent applications, drawings can be inblack ink or color. Black and white drawings are normally required. On rare occasions, color drawings may be necessary as the only practical medium by which to disclose the subject matter sought to be patented in a utility or design patent application or the subject matter of a statutory invention registration.[6]
Black and whitephotographs are not ordinarily permitted in utility and design patent applications, unless this is the only practicable medium for illustrating the claimed invention. For example, photographs of electrophoresis gels, blots, autoradiographs, cell cultures, histological tissue cross sections, animals, plants, in vivo imaging, etc. Color photographs can be accepted in utility and design patent applications if the conditions for accepting color drawings and black and white photographs have been satisfied.[6]
Unlike utility patents, applications for design patents rely fully on the drawings. According to USPTO guidelines, "the drawing disclosure is the most important element of the application," and the drawings in design patent applications "constitute the entire visual disclosure of the claim." In well-executed drawings "nothing regarding the design sought to be patented is left to conjecture."[6]
Patent drawing features can contain the following features:[6]
Format requirements may differ by country where the patent is being filed.
The patent drawing can further contain a numbering of sheets of drawings, numbering of views,copyright notice, security markings, corrections (durable and permanent), no holes, and a type of drawing indication.
The views in the drawing may be plan, elevation, section, or perspective views:[6]
