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rekursives Patent.



[Aus der NY Times,
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/05/biztech/articles/01pate.html vom
1.5.00:]

Patents that cover methods of doing business may be controversial, but
perhaps only one patent is genuinely redundant. A Dallas company has won a
patent for a method of applying for a patent.

The company, Kernel Creations Ltd., says this is the first time the patent
and trademark agency has awarded a patent for a technology for preparing a
patent application. And it says that inventors have already been awarded
patents based on applications prepared by use of the software.

[...]

"We found in our practice that a lot of people don't have the resources to
pay a patent attorney to go through the process, and they're being cut out,"
Petruzzi said. "This software enables a lot of people to get into the system
and apply for patents."

He also thinks the software will enable patent lawyers to avoid
complications that can arise when they try to write a patent application
without enough consultation with the inventor.

"I've seen many patents drafted by attorneys, and once they got into
litigation, I saw that the inventor was not involved in the drafting
process, and that caused problems down the road," he explained.

The software divides the task of writing a patent application into sections.

"A patent application is sort of like a short story, not a
fill-in-the-blanks process," Petruzzi said. "The software takes you through
the sections of the application to build an entire document. It starts with
a central analysis of the invention, and from that it generates other
fields, claims and abstracts.

"The real key to the patent and the process is the fact that the sections
are interlinked. As you do Section 1, it creates something in Section 2, and
1 and 2 build Section 3. As you go through it, it builds the format commonly
used in patent applications, and then you can go through and edit it."

The software draws words from the inventor's title and primary descriptions
to write the application in the prose and format particular to the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office.

"When you think about a patent, 95 percent of it is a technical description
of the invention," Petruzzi said. "That doesn't require legalese, but for
the inventor to disclose what the invention is, how it works, what are the
significant modifications, we really push the fact that the claims need to
be written in a clear manner."

The company is already selling the software under the name PatentPro
(www.4patpro.com).

"A lot of people use the program to prepare a draft application and give it
to their patent attorney and reduce costs," Petruzzi said. He and his
partner, Robert M. Mason, won patent 6,049,811.

[...]

--
#     Stefan Bechtold       stef@n-bechtold.com     Berkeley, CA     #
#              http://www.jura.uni-tuebingen.de/~s-bes1              #
#       Time is what prevents everything from happening at once.     #