There are millions of utility patent applications that you can view at www.uspto.gov. If you spend any time searching through these sample patents you will notice that these patents have changed over time. The older patents look like they came from another world and the newer ones are complicated and full of all kinds of "lawyer speak" spread out among lots of "tech speak." It can be hard to understand what to look for in the patent and even harder to do one for yourself.
To help you understand all of the intricacies of a utility patent, we will go through one with you and "fill in" the parts as we go. Typically, a modern utility patent application has the following parts:
A rubber ball, including a metal ball lodged inside such that a portion of the metal ball is exposed. A game of skill is played with the rubber ball where each player throws the ball against a wall with the object being to have the shortest rebound. Skillful players will strike the metal portion against the wall which will substantially reduce the rebound. Background.
People have been playing games with balls for years. These include basketball, football, baseball, football, keep-away, etc.
The current games generally rely on a symmetrical ball that interacts with its environment consistently. This results in highly predictable play for simple uses of the ball. There is a need for an enhanced ball suitable for games involving simple actions where the ball increases the difficulty of such and makes those games more fun to play.
In one embodiment, there is a ball that may include elastic material such as, but not including, rubber. The ball may also include an object lodged therein that may include a material having different properties from the first material and may be partially exposed
Figure 1 shows a perspective view of an enhanced ball according to one embodiment of the invention;
Figure 2 shows.....
The present invention is described herein … (typically lots of "preface language" to set the stage for interpreting what comes next).
Figure 1 shows a perspective view of an enhanced ball according to one embodiment of the invention. There is a ball 10 comprising of elastic material such as, but not limited to, rubber, plastic, and/or a composite thereof. The ball 10 includes an object 12 acentrally disposed therein and partially exposed about a portion of the surface of the ball. The object 12....
1. An enhanced ball for playing games, comprising an elastic ball having an acentral core with elasticity different than that of the elastic ball.
2. The enhanced ball of claim 1, wherein the acentral core is exposed across a portion of the exterior surface of the ball.
(Include enough drawings to make all aspects of the invention clear.)
So, you can see in this sample utility patent application that all the parts work together to make a document that "only an attorney could love." There is a lot of repetition and confusing language (is "acentral" even a word? Oh, wait; patent lawyerss are authorized by congress to make up new words - seriously!). One thing you should notice is that the whole sample utility patent is focused on the structure and function of the invention. Why? Because, the sample utility patent application, like real utility patents, protects exactly that -- the structure and function -- everything else is window dressing.
