Patent Illustration: Techniques and its Importance
This blog post will provide a brief understanding on the techniques involved in “Patent Illustration” or “Patent drawings” preparation and their importance in patenting an inventive idea.
“An invention can be explained easily when the textual description is accompanied with several views of the drawings”.
Patent Illustrations or Patent Drawings has its roots in various categories.
- Design Patents (which holds most technical details shown in the 7 standard views i.e. Top, Bottom, Left, Right, Front, Back, Perspective views).
- Trademarks Drawings (Picture or logo).
- Utility Drawings (such as, a Machine or System and its components).
- DNA (DNA structures, DNA Chain links, DNA coding).
- Software related Patents (depicting user interface, Graphs, Flowcharts/diagrams etc.).
Key Points to be considered before submitting the Patent Drawings:
- Patent offices, apply specific criteria concerning the technical details of drawings they accept.
- For this, a Patent Applicant should pay more attention towards the specifications of drawings before they send for Filing.
- Patent Drawings must meet the requirements of the country where the patent is filed and the requirements varies with the type of patent protection sought. For example, Design patent standards, Page size A4 or Letter, Black and white drawings, Different line types, fills used to show different properties of material.
Patent Drawing Techniques:
Patent Drawings, should meet the standard requirements of Patent office, whose requirements varies from country to country for various drawings categorized (say, Design Patents or the Utility drawings) from examiner point of view.
For instance, there are many 2D & 3D modeling tools available for producing the Patent Drawings. Example: Auto-CAD, Pro-E or Creo, Catia, Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, MS Paint etc.
It wholly, depends on the Inventor/Patent illustrator, to choose the user interface based on feasibility, precision by which he can produce the best quality Patent Drawings with more technical details. The more precise or accurate the details are, the less chances of getting rejections from the Examiner.
Drawings need more attention while depicting the details such as claimed features of the invention. Several views of the drawings can be submitted showing the claimed features without any ambiguity. The drawings when observed along with the textual description should provide a clear understanding about the invention and its key features.
Generally, the inventor, provides a rough sketch of Patent Drawings, Trademarks or Patent Designs suing hand art or a simple drawing tool if he knows traditional drawing techniques. If he couldn’t get the best forms of the drawings, he can get professional assistance from Patent illustrators, where they can help the inventor in getting the best quality of Patent Drawings.
What Does a Patent Illustrator/Patent Designer Do?
1) Patent service providers have qualified Patent Illustrators, who got the required experience in providing the best quality Patent drawings with high precision and accurate technical details.
2) Patent Illustrators in IP firms, have thorough knowledge on filing requirements for patent drawings in different jurisdictions. As submitting good quality drawings that comply with patent office requirements during filing stage itself can save a lot of time and cost associated with overcoming rejections based on drawings during prosecution stages.
3) Patent Designs, where the ornamental design is described only with the help of drawings, it requires adequate expertise to pay more attention to intricate details of the design. The design drawings should be illustrated in such a way that the examiner can clearly understand the novel design features by looking at the drawings.
4) Patents drawings, initially made from handmade traditional pen and ink kind, now evolved to advanced illustration software and various CAD tools. These tools not only enhances the quality of drawings but also simplifies the process of making drawings.
From this Blog, as discussed above, the technical details and importance of “Patent Illustrations”, helps you to adopt a better patent filing methodology.
Einfolge Technologies Private Limited, being one of the leading providers of Patent & IPR solutions for a wide range of clients, includes Patent illustration services under its service offerings. Einfolge caters to a wide range of clientele by providing timely delivery of high quality patent drawings complying with the patent office requirements.
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