A patent application has of a number of sections to be completed. Some of them are to record standard details about the applicant such as your name and address. You also need to include the names of any agent acting for you. For the more practical parts of the patent there are five main items that we have listed below.
As its name suggest this is the name that you give to your patent. This will be published when you make your application. Because this is before your application is granted you should be careful not to include any confidential information or describe any new method in the title. For this reason Patent Titles are not very informative and are not much use when you are looking for similar ideas. The title on the example patent shown here is just 'Charger'. To get a copy of this patent application so that you can see the detail just click here or click the document example.
Also on the first page is a short description of the idea called the Abstract. This is used to provide a helpful indication of what the patent is all about. This helps people find relevant patents when they are researching new ideas. Obviously it has to be relevant to the patent and accurate. It can't include facts that are not in the rest of the document. It is normally written last after the rest of the document is complete so that it can accurately summarise the patent.
The description is a detailed explanation of the invention and how it works. It must include all the information necessary to make the invention by someone 'skilled in the art'. For example this invention is an electrical device but you don't need to include basic information about making electrical products that you could reasonably expect a competent electrical engineer to know.
You do need to include everything that makes this idea new. A common mistake is to believe that you can keep control of the idea by keeping a key fact out of the application. This will probably cause the application to be rejected. Even if it is granted it could be challenged later if a competitor realises that information is missing.
The description must refer to the numbered drawings included later and in the Abstract to explain the important features of the idea.
The claims are the most important part of the document. It is here that you are claiming to have made a new invention. The claims are written in a special style that can be hard to follow. Each claim must stand alone and be complete in itself.
The first claim or 'Claim 1' is the most important and describes the fundamental claim that is being made. Every claim that comes after it can assume the content of the preceding claims. So each dependent claim adds another feature in decreasing order of importance.
When the patent office eventually examines the application they may accept some of the claims but not others. For example there may be another invention that already has the feature that you are claiming. Getting the claims right is the part of the patent application where you might need the help of a Patent Attorney.
The drawings that are included do not need to be elaborate technical drawings. However they do need to be clear and they need to be clearly labelled. The numbers on the drawing are used to link the drawing to the description. As many drawings as are needed to describe the idea can be included.