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Definition

The complete record of all communications between an applicant and the USPTO during patent prosecutionprosecutionThe whole process of moving a patent application from filing through grant or abandonment at the USPTO.Read more → — including the original application, all office actions, all responses, and the notice of allowancenotice of allowanceUSPTO document signaling claims are allowable and a patent will issue once the applicant pays the issue fee.Read more →. Also called the "prosecution historyprosecution historyThe public record of an applicant's exchanges with the patent examiner. Courts use it to constrain what the claims can mean.Read more →." The file wrapperfile wrapperThe complete public record of communications between an applicant and the USPTO during prosecution. Used in litigation to interpret claim scope.Read more → is public and permanent; courts use it during litigationlitigationA lawsuit over patent infringement. Litigated patents often signal commercial importance.Read more → to interpret the scope of claimsclaimsThe numbered statements at the end of a patent that legally define what the inventor owns.Read more → based on statements the applicant made to the examinerexaminerThe USPTO official who reviews a patent application and decides whether to grant it.Read more →.

Related terms

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Freedom to operate (FTO)

A legal opinion assessing whether a product, process, or service can be commercialized without infringing any valid, in-force patents held by others. FTO searches are typically conducted before launching a product. An FTO opinion does not guarantee safety from infringement claims, but a good-faith, well-documented FTO analysis can reduce willfulness damages if litigation occurs.

Abstract

A brief summary (300 words or fewer) that appears at the top of every patent. The abstract describes what the invention does in general terms. Legally, it has almost no weight — courts use the claims to determine what a patent covers, not the abstract. The abstract is useful mainly for quickly scanning patents during a prior art search.

Anticipation

A legal standard for rejecting a patent claim. If every element of a claim was already disclosed in a single prior art reference — in a patent, article, or product — the claim is "anticipated" and cannot be patented. Anticipation requires a single source to contain every element; if you need two sources, it's an obviousness argument, not anticipation.

Appeal

A request to have a patent examiner's rejection reviewed by a higher authority. After receiving multiple rejections, an applicant can appeal to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) within the USPTO, and from there to federal court. Appeals are expensive and slow, but sometimes necessary when an examiner applies the law incorrectly.

Art unit

A group of patent examiners at the USPTO who specialize in a particular technology area. Each application is assigned to the art unit whose examiners are trained in the relevant field. The art unit assignment matters because examiner expertise — and rejection rates — vary significantly across technology areas.

Assignee

The legal owner of a patent, who may or may not be the inventor. When an employee invents something in the course of their employment, most companies require inventors to assign patent rights to the employer. The assignee appears on the patent document and has the right to license or enforce the patent.

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