In my last post, Why Patent Applications are Hard to Read, I gave half the story. The other half is that patents are hard to read because they are hard to write. When a writer’s thoughts don’t flow smoothly, the resultant text doesn’t flow smoothly either. A good patent attorney must use the inventor’s explanation to understand both the idea and what is inventive about it. This requires understanding the technology of the invention and also the ‘prior art’. Many inventors don

When you want to learn about a new subject, where do you go? To a journal article? To the Wikipedia? Which source provides the clearest explanation of the subject? The Wikipedia often gives a good overall explanation of a subject while a journal article will flesh out details or supply a more academic discussion. These are the two most common sources for information. But did you know that the patent databases are also supposed to “further the state of the art”? This is one re