“New and improved! Best thing since sliced bread! The world’s greatest invention right over here folks!”
Sometimes, it can be tempting for innovators to provide their patent attorney with a laundry list of trumpeted and fluffed-up attributes of their innovations and call it an “innovation disclosure”.
Unfortunately, such platitudes, while perhaps fine for sales and marketing efforts, don’t usually provide a patent attorney with the relevant information required to build a high-quality patent application.
Instead, at a minimum, a reasonable innovation disclosure will provide a:
- List, ranked by innovator-perceived value, of the concepts the innovator believes are innovative;
- Simple explanation of the background and nature of the problem each listed concept is believed to uniquely solve, preferably drafted as a Problem/Solution Statement;
- Brief identification, for each listed concept, of its unique structural features, unique functions, and unique results, and how they help solve the problem;
- Sketches, if particularly helpful, to illustrate those unique aspects;
- Summary of the most significant difference(s) between each listed concept and any particular innovator-known existing solutions to the problem and/or closely related problems;
- Description that:
- Explains how to make and use the full scope of each listed concept in the best way any of the innovators currently knows; and
- Is sufficiently detailed to empower a person having ordinary skill in the relevant technical field to successfully make and use the full scope of each listed concept (without undergoing undue further research, experimentation, or training;
- For each listed concept, all innovator-known evidence, if any, of:
- Recognition by the innovators of a problem not recognized by others (e.g., competitors);
- Long-felt but unmet need in the market for a solution to the problem;
- Failed attempts by others to solve the problem;
- Skepticism of experts that the concept solves the problem;
- Discouragement, by others, from pursuing this concept;
- Praise, by competitors or others, for creating this concept; and/or
- Any unpredictable or synergistic results/benefits achieved by this concept.
A well-written innovation disclosure can form a solid technical foundation for analyzing patentability, risks, and value, and help give your patent attorney what they need to craft a high-quality patent application.