Litigation-Proof Patents: Avoiding the Most Common Patent Mistakes

LITIGATION-PROOF PATENTS: Avoiding the Most Common Patent Mistakes explains the principles of excellent patents, presents the ten most common errors in patents, and details a step-by-step method for avoiding these common errors. Specific patents are analyzed and shown to commit or avoid the most common patent mistakes. The book includes four chapters. •First, a step-by-step process for writing outstanding patents that capture all the innovative points of an invention and that avoid the most common patent mistakes.•Second, principles of litigation-proof patents, including characteristics of good patent claims, Key Claim Terms, patent value, seminal patents, and tips for writing patent applications.•Third, the ten most common mistakes that appear frequently in patents, and that destroy both patent quality and patent value.•Fourth, five patents that illustrate the concept of “litigation-proof patents”. These patents include the Hedy Lamarr frequency hopping patent from World War II, the patents for the board game Monopoly®, and the “slide-to-unlock” mobile phone patent that Apple asserted against Samsung.LITIGATION-PROOF PATENTS is intended for anyone writing a patent who wants to achieve the highest-possible quality. It is intended for patent evaluators who want to understand whether or not the patents being reviewed suffer from value-destroying mistakes. It is intended for patent managers and heads of IP departments who are managing significant patent portfolios, and who want to understand the relative quality of their portfolios. LITIGATION-PROOF PATENTS is the second of three books the make up the Patent Quality Series. The first book in the series, TRUE PATENT VALUE: Defining Quality in Patents and Patent Portfolios, was published in 2013, and the third book in the series, PATENT PORTFOLIOS: Quality, Creation, and Cost, will be published soon.

Larry M. Goldstein is a U.S. patent attorney specializing in Information & Communication Technologies. He evaluates patent quality, manages patent portfolios, and is engaged actively in the drafting and prosecuting of patent applications. He is the author PATENT PORTFOLIOS: Quality, Creation, and Cost (2014); LITIGATION-PROOF PATENTS: Avoiding the Most Common Patent Mistakes (2014); and TRUE PATENT VALUE: Defining Quality in Patents and Patent Portfolios (2013). He helped establish the patent pool for FRAND licensing of 3G Wideband CDMA technology, and he is a coauthor of the book TECHNOLOGY PATENT LICENSING: An International Reference on 21st Century Patent Licensing, Patent Pools and Patent Platforms (2004). Mr. Goldstein holds a B.A. from Harvard College, an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. His web site is www.truepatentvalue.com.