Patent drawings, also called as illustration for patents are vital for the success of your invention. Though various patent offices like USPTO have not mandated it and a draft-person has the liberty to include or not include it in their patent drafting document, still, viewing its importance, it is recommended to include a patent drawing with an application.
However, creating drawings for patents is not like any typical drawing that we did in our school days. Here, we have certain rules those need to be followed and adhered to, failing which can lead to rejection of your patent drawing.
With this article, our main aim is to underline some important patent rules and regulations so that our drawing becomes suitable for the respective patent office.
Since, including a patent drawing is not mandatory and still it’s recommended, it’s important to understand the reason for its inclusion and then we will dive into steps need to be followed to make it suitable for Patent Office. So, let’s first know when is a patent drawing needed and in which circumstances we need to use it.
Also read: Important Views of Patent Illustration
In fact, there are three circumstances when we are required to include a patent drawing and these are mentioned below:
When we need patent drawings for inventions:
For the better understanding of the invention: We include patent drawings when we wish to ease the understanding of the invention. We can take example of a mobile hand-set design that contains various features and functionalities. Though, we can represent these functionalities in textual form also but wouldn’t it be better to include a drawing that can show each of the feature and functionality visually. We are sure a patent drawing is recommended in this situation.
When we wish to attract prospective licensee: One of the import reasons for inventing something is to monetize it in future. There are many ways of monetizing a patent, still the most obvious one is to license it to a third party and then comes the importance of attracting the eye-balls of licensee. Patent drawings contain reference numerals those are used by the patent attorneys for detailed description. These reference numerals are used for drawing the attention of the prospective licensee and allowing him to easily envision the final product when it will be launched and sold to the end user.
To put our claims firmly during litigation: When every now and then we can find a patent infringement suit being filed it’s important to put an effective patent protection mechanism in place. Though, a patent drawing may not help us directly in a patent litigation still it would help in making things clear during litigation. If a drawing is present we can describe our claims in a much more firm manner without having a need to read hundreds and thousands of texts in an application.
Below are some of the important rules those we need to follow while creating a patent drawing for our invention.
Mind the quality of paper used: Patent office cares a lot about the quality of the paper used in an illustration and thus it’s important to ensure right at the beginning that the quality of the paper is at par with the guidelines of PTO.
A patent drawing submitted to the patent office like the United States Patent and Trademark Office or European Patent Office must be made on paper which is flexible, strong, white, smooth, non-shiny, and durable. The paper used for the purpose of drawing should be free from any kind of folds or creases so that the same can be reproduced electronically easily in future. The paper size should be 21.6 cm wide and 27.9 cm long.
The paper used to create drawings of your invention should be devoid of any kind of folds or creases so that they can be electronically reproduced in future. The paper size should be 21.6 cm wide and 27.9 cm long. Some other dimensions which should be maintained are:
Top & Left Margin: 2.5 cm
Right Margin: 1.5 cm
Bottom Margin: 1.0 cm
Use Numbering for various elements: As per the rules of PTO’s it’s important to number each of the element of the drawing with numbers. Failing to number various elements of a drawing can lead to rejection of your application.
Assemble drawings used in a draft: In case, you have more than one drawing for your invention it’s important to assemble all the drawings in a single document so that no feature of the invention is concealed.
Use various views to support your invention: When submitting a patent drawing to a patent office it’s important to include as many views as possible. Including various views enable patent examiners look at the invention through different dimensions. Some of the important views those a draft-person can use are: Orthogonal and perspective views, isometric views, sectional views, duplicate views, exploded views, plain and unornamented view, and flat object views.
Also read: Qualities of a Good Patent Drawings Company
Overview
Patent drawings play a very important role in making the patent application more presentable. They explain the invention in a way that no text can and therefore patent examiner can clearly understand the functioning of the invention, how it looks like and what are the attributes of the invention. Patent drawing make the invention 100 times more easy to understand and therefore the task to the examiner is reduced and he can easily examine the invention. The main purpose of the invention is to impress the patent examiner and explain the invention in a clear way and this task is easily done by the patent drawings.
Therefore, it is very important to make the patent drawings suitable with the rules and regulations of the patent office. They can serve their purpose perfectly only when they don’t violate the rules and guidelines of the patent office.
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