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Claim Must Be Proven on Paper

When filling out your written patent application, you must describe your invention in such a manner that a person skilled in the same field of technology as your invention can read and understand your application and would be able to use your invention. As the inventor, you must be able to describe your inventions, along with certain claims, in definitive and clear terms.

The phrase "claims by the inventor must be in definitive and clear terms" is not as easy as you'd think. Your claims not only tell what your intellectual property is but are also legally enforceable by law. How you write your claim can make the difference between acceptance and rejection.

Your patent application will have an area, called the specification, where you reveal and describe your invention. The specification section may include several types of claims, descriptions or drawings, depending both on your type of invention and the type of patent requested.

Although your invention may have come from an idea, you can't request a patent for an idea. You must describe what your invention is and how it works so an expert in that field would understand the dynamics of your invention.

If this were your first patent application, it would not be advisable to do it yourself. Although, as the inventor, you can write the description for your invention, consider giving it to an attorney, along with your logbook, prototype and any previous art searches done. Your attorney can use your writings as a guide and do the complicated work for you, saving you money in the process.

Your description of your intellectual property must be thorough and complete at the time of your patent application because once it's been filed you cannot make additions to it. However, changes to the subject manner may be made if they can be easily inferred from your original description or drawings.

The first thing you should do before you even start filling out your patent application is search for news about inventions similar to yours that may have already been disclosed, aka prior art. You'll learn more about that shortly.