Category: Patent Filing

If you have ever changed a patent application after filing and felt a quiet fear in your stomach, you are not alone. Amendments look simple. They feel harmless. You just add a few words, clean up a sentence, or explain the invention better. But this is where many strong patents quietly fall apart. New matter…

Most patents fail for one simple reason. The idea was strong, but the words did not line up. That is what support in the spec really means. Every part of your claim must be clearly backed by what you wrote in the description. There can be no guessing, no stretching, and no relying on what…

Patents often fail because of small writing mistakes, not because the invention is weak. One of the most damaging mistakes is an antecedent basis error. This happens when a claim mentions something before clearly introducing it. That single issue can create confusion and give others room to attack your protection. This matters for founders and…

When patents fall apart, it is almost never because the invention was weak; it is because the words were weak. Simple, everyday terms like “about,” “substantially,” or “roughly” can quietly destroy an otherwise strong patent if they are not handled with care. These words feel harmless, even helpful, but in patents they can create uncertainty,…

Most patent failures do not come from weak ideas. They come from weak explanations. Founders often describe what might work instead of showing what does work. That gap is the difference between prophetic examples and working examples. Enablement depends on whether your patent teaches something real or just sounds smart. Many patents fail because they…

Let’s get straight to it.Negative limitations can either make your patent very strong or completely break it. There is no middle ground. When used the right way, they help you lock out competitors with clean, clear claims. When used the wrong way, they get rejected, delayed, or quietly weaken everything you’re trying to protect. This…

If you are building real tech, ranges will show up in your patent. Voltage ranges. Data size ranges. Time ranges. Threshold ranges. And this is where many strong inventions quietly break. Most founders do not lose patents because their idea is weak. They lose them because a single number, or the edge of a range,…

If you are building something new, your patent can either protect the whole idea or just a tiny slice of it. That choice often comes down to one question: are you claiming a big category, or just a few specific versions? This is where genus and species claims come in, and where many founders quietly…

Software patents fail for one simple reason more than any other. The idea sounds smart, the product works, the code is real—but the patent does not clearly explain how the software does the work. That missing “how” is what examiners care about most. And that “how” is the algorithm. If you build software, you already…

Patents fail more often because of bad words than bad ideas, and one of the most dangerous problems is something called 112(f), which can be triggered by accident when you use certain innocent-looking terms known as “nonce words.” These words sound helpful and flexible, but courts often treat them as placeholders that secretly limit your…