Can an examiner cite a reference “solely” for a specific teaching and ignore the other parts of that reference that undercut the rejection?

Examiner statistics can be used by expert patent practitioners in many ways. However, the USPTO does not enable (refuses to enable?) easy access to such data and so the void has been filled by various business concerns. Before there was much competition, the costs of obtaining examiner data was virtually prohibitive for all but the…

How to frame the facts to boost your non-analogous art arguments before the Patent Office.

Can drawings not labeled as to scale support relative sizing amendments in the claims? Read and find out.

Follow along as we remember some popular posts from the past seven years of the Mr. IP Law (TM) blog.

The inventors here discovered previously unrecognized advantages of gender-specific baby formulas, but were not able to articulate the invention in claims that could distinguish the prior art gender-neutral formulations.

A strong argument does more than merely parrot the cited claim limitations, as well as the cited portions of the prior art, by also comparing or contrasting the difference therebetween.

When examiners play fast and loose with the mapping rule, it provides a better opportunity for the applicant to succeed on appeal.

What automated tools are you using to monitor your competitor’s patent filings, and what do their drawings tell you?

My kids are well past playing with food and utensils, but I remember the constant clean-up of those times. We used to joke about lining the kitchen with plastic wrap. Which brings us to the “pre-spoon” – something you use to train your children before they graduate to a real spoon. Numnum’s has a well-designed…