Patent application drafting is an important and complex undertaking. The drafter must understand the technology surrounding an invention and describe the invention accurately and completely. The specification and drawings filed with an application must full disclose the invention. These are then printed as part of the issued patent. The specification and drawings must provide sufficient information about the invention so as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the invention.
Various fees are payable to the PTO as part of the patenting process.
These fees, which add up to thousands of dollars, include filing, application processing, patent issue, document supply, maintenance, reeexamination, and miscellaneous fees. The majority of cost of obtaining a patent, however, is the cost of prosecution by a patent attorney. Provisional rights are available to patentees to obtain reasonable royalties if others make, use, sell, or import the invention during the period between publication and grant. Patent applicants have a duty to disclose to the PTO information of which they are aware that is material to examination and to refrain from misrepresenting facts. The appropriate time to file a patent application is at the point at which the invention has been completely conceived in a workable form.