Patent Law Practice Center

Selected Aspects Of The Impact Of Patent Application Drafting And Prosecution

Louis S. Sorell, Patent Counsel at Google Inc. in New York City, sent in this article he wrote discussing issues that arise during patent prosectuon which may impact subsequent litigation.  Sorell will be speaking at PLI’s Fundamentals of Patent Prosecution 2011: A Boot Camp for Claim Drafting & Amendment Writing on June 17, 2011.  The following is an excerpt from the article:

Introduction

Issues often arise during patent prosecution which impact the course of subsequent patent litigation.  This paper discusses several specific areas in which decisions made during prosecution may particularly impact subsequent litigation.

A.   Background

With respect to the claim language itself, the words of the claims govern and are generally given their ordinary and customary meaning. The focus of this analysis is “what one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention would have understood the term to mean.” (more…)