My fiance and I are currently writing our own patent for one of his inventions. There is another patent from the early 80's that does the same thing in a completly different way. I was thinking it might be helpful to us to order the file wrapper on this patent since it has the same use as ours, and is therefore rather similar. But we are obviously low on cash or we wouldn't be writing our own patent, my fiance thinks the $200 for a file wrapper is prohibitive, so I am wondering how much information you guys think we would get from it, and would it be worth it?
Thanks in advance, Alice and Jeremy
Thanks in advance, Alice and Jeremy
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Re: Value of File Wrappers ?
Mon, May 23, 2005 - 11:06 AMOrdering the file wrapper is likely not to help you write the patent application any better. Better might be to look at the prior art cited in that patent to see if your invention is still so novel. Please at least use a book like "Patent It Yourself" by Nolo Press. -
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Re: Value of File Wrappers ?
Tue, August 30, 2005 - 8:12 PMI agree with Barry in that the file wrapper is not going to be of much value in drafting your application. As Barry suggests, you will want to search for additional prior art. Drafting your patent claims is much like setting a fence up around property you've claimed. If set up a small fence (ie. draft your claims narrowly) you probably won't put it around someone else's land, or public land, but you may not get much value. If you set up a big fence (draft your claims broadly), you'll get much broader protection but if you accidentally include public land or someone else's land within your fence, the entire fence is knocked down (your claim is invalid).
Therefore, when your putting up your fence it's very helpful to know what land is already owned or in the public domain. Then you can erect your fence as broadly as possible.
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