The word patent represents a type of an intellectual property
that contains a set of limited rights that are granted by an independent state
to an inventor or their assignee for a selective time period for public
disclosure of an invention. The correspondence between the United States or
foreign patent office and the patent attorney or agent representing an inventor
is said to be patent file history. Patent file history is also
known as patent file wrapper.
To get a patent for an invention, the inventor with his
attorney files a patent application to patent office. For inventors at United States
the application is submitted to United States Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO). The patent application is
assigned to patent examiner who has relevant knowledge, training and experience
for which the invention is related and is available on first come first serve
basis. Patent examiners are usually scientists or engineers by training and
they are not lawyers.
The process of examining patent is sometimes called “prosecution”. The patent examiner examines the patent application whether the requirements are fulfilled or not during prosecution. Generally patent examiner focuses on two things; if the invention is explained in a rational manner through documentation or graphical representations so that the invention can be understood and practiced by others once the patent expires, and closed in the knowledge of the “prior art”. The prior art include prior patents (whether issued in the United States or abroad) and publications are made anywhere in the world for inventors in United States.
To conclude this final requirement, the patent examiner will
search for the prior art. The institute of United States Patent and Trademark
Office has large quantity of prior patents and publications categorized by
subject matter most of which are present on databases of computer. The patent
examiner will find the prior art appropriate to the invention to make sure that
the invention claimed is unique and unobvious in the patent application.
A document called an “office action” is issued as an end
product of the patent examiner’s initial examination and search of the prior
art. The patent examiner can raise objections, accept or reject depends on the
textual content of the patent application based on prior art search through
this document. The office action is submitted to the inventor and he/she has an
opportunity to act on this document or to work on his/her invention if approved
by United States Patent
and Trademark Office.
In case of rejection, the inventor can work again on patent application.
The whole communication is called prosecution. The record
held by United States
Patent and Trademark Office with
reference to prosecution history is called Patent file history.
