Patent Law

Our Denver Colorado based patent attorney team can meticulously review the prior art and compare it to your invention. By taking the time to determine whether your invention or product is patentable or not, you can save yourself thousands of dollars in potential prosecution costs and avoid a costly litigation battle.  As a result, we can help you save money in filing costs compared to that of other law firms.

Our Colorado patent lawyers are familiar with preparing and filing international patent applications in compliance with the Patent Cooperation Treaty or PCT.  We can help you decide which jurisdictions to file your patent in and help you translate your patent application.  We have a network of reliable and trusted patent attorneys situated abroad that are members of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI).

Professional patent services offered include the following:

• Patentability and prior art searches
• Provisional patent application filings
• Utility patent application filings
• Design patent application filings
• PCT patent application filings
• Prosecution actions (responding to office actions from the USPTO)

Patent related definitions and terms:

Prior art – Previously used or published information that may be referred to in a patent application or examination report, i.e. (a) in a broad sense, technology that is relevant to an invention and was publicly available (e.g. described in a publication or offered for sale) at the time an invention was made; or (b) in a narrow sense, any such technology which would invalidate a patent or limit its scope.  The process of prosecuting a patent or interpreting its claims largely consists of identifying relevant prior art and distinguishing the claimed invention from that prior art.  The objective of the search process is to identify patent and non-patent documents constituting the relevant prior art in order to determine whether the invention is novel and includes an inventive step (non-obviousness).

Patentability – The ability of an invention to satisfy the legal requirements for patent protection.  The fundamental elements for patentability, which an application must meet before a patent can be issued, are that the invention must be novel, useful, non-obvious (or contain an inventive step at the European Patent Office (EPO)), and qualify as patentable subject matter (e.g. scientific theories and mathematical methods are NOT regarded as patentable subject matter at the  EPO).

Novelty – The condition for patentability that an invention must not have been disclosed to the public or offered for sale in any way, in any location, before the filing or priority date.

Non-obviousness – The conditions for non-obviousness have become stricter since the Supreme Court decision in KSR v. Teleflex reapplied the rules from Graham v. John Deere Co.  If you are concerned whether your invention is non-obvious, it is probably in your best interest to consult a patent attorney.  At a very basic level, an improvement can be considered non-obvious if the advance is not obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the relevant art.

Patent Prosecution – Prosecution refers to the filing of a patent application through issuance.  Any appeals, interferences, reissue, rejections, objections, and double patenting arguments from a patent office are part of the patent prosecution process.

Design Patent – A patent granted by the USPTO for the ornamental design of a functional object.  35 U.S.C. 171.  Design patents currently have a term of 14 years from the date of the patent grant.

Utility Patent – A patent issued by the USPTO that protects the way an article is used and works.  35 U.S.C. 101.  Utility patents currently granted generally have a term of 20 years from the filing date of the application.  This term can vary based on a number of factors.  Please consult a patent attorney if you are inquiring into specific dates.

Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) – The PCT is an international treaty with over 128 contracting states.   It streamlines the application process by providing a uniform set of standards and procedures for filing patent applications in member states.  Most major patent offices such as the U.S., German, and Japanese patent offices are PCT member states.

Anticipation – When relevant prior art is cited that discloses all the features of a claim and enables a person having ordinary skill in the art to make and use the claimed invention, the claim is said to be  rejected on novelty grounds because the application claims are anticipated by the claims from the prior art.

Claims – The section of a patent application that defines the metes and boundaries of the invention that the inventor intends to protect.  An independent claim will define the invention in a broad form, while dependent claims will narrow the scope of the invention and relate to other features of the invention.

Office Action – A document written by a patent examiner and issued by the USPTO during a patent examination procedure.  Office actions may be used by the USPTO or other jurisdictions to request clarification, additional information, reject, object, allow, or approve a patent application.

Our Colorado patent attorneys service the cities of Boulder, Broomfield, Louisville, Denver, Fort Collins, Telluride, Vail, Breckenridge, Winter Park, Steamboat Springs, Westminster, Arvada, Englewood, Aurora, Thornton, Brighton, Lakewood, Littleton, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Golden, and the entire Front Range. We will discuss your options and help you find the right course of action to protect your rights.