Trade secret

Terminal disclaimer

A document filed with the USPTO in which a patent applicant agrees that the term of a patent will end no later than the expiration of an earlier related patent. Terminal disclaimers are commonly required to overcome an "obviousness-type double patenting" rejection — which occurs when two related patents claim inventions that aren't patentably distinct from each other.

Trademark

A word, phrase, logo, symbol, or trade dress that identifies the source of goods or services and distinguishes them from those of competitors. Trademarks protect brand identity, not inventions. Unlike patents, trademarks can theoretically last forever as long as the mark is used in commerce and renewals are filed. Federal registration at the USPTO provides nationwide rights and the right to use the ® symbol.

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.