Quality Patents

By: Josh Sloat

Crafted to Stand the Test of Time

Is your patent a vanity piece of paper for your office wall? Or is it a reliable, defendable, assertable, property right? The difference is often quality.

Is your patent simply a transactional cost and a large pile of legal bills for your startup? Or is it a leverageable asset worthy of attracting precious investment dollars, worth its cost in multiples of valuation? The difference is often quality.

Is your patent application only good enough to get through the examination process? Or has it been crafted to stand the tests of time and varied audiences if you later need to assert that document against an infringer, find yourself litigating with it in an Article 3 Court at the hands of a judge and jury, God forbid, end up having to defend its validity at the PTAB, or even needing to use it to block pirated imports at the International Trade Commission? The difference is often quality.

As an inventor, you cannot leave this to chance or to blind trust in the wrong professional. You’ve put too much into your innovation to come up short when its life depends on the measure of your patent. In the eyes of the patent office, judges, juries, PTAB admins, ITC officials, and IP-savvy investors, it doesn’t really matter how great, novel, or universe-denting your invention is if it is not properly defined and protected by your patent. The difference is often quality.
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Quality will be our focus for a good chunk of the remainder of this season. What goes into a quality patent, and where possible, how do you get it without breaking the bank? In this first episode of our quality series, Kristen Hansen and the panel discuss:​

• What do we mean when we say patent quality?
• Why is patent quality important?
• How to balance quality and budget
• The importance of searching, continuations, and draftsperson domain expertise
• Very practical tips, tricks, examples, and Kristen’s Musts for drafting quality applications

Kristen is joined today by our always exceptional group, including:

• Dr. Ashley Sloat, President and Director of Patent Strategy at Aurora
• Dr. David Jackrel, President of Jackrel Consulting
• Marie Smyth, Patent Agent at Brake Hughes Bellermann LLP
• Ty Davis, Patent Strategy Associate at Aurora

Mossoff Minute: Patents and the Founders

In this month's Mossoff Minute, in honor of celebrating America’s independence, we’re flashing back to our conversation with Professor Adam Mossoff about why patents exist, how the US system differed from all predecessors, and how the Founders’ notions of the core principles of democracy are inextricably linked with the societal good that comes from innovation and intellectual property protection. ​We’re also publishing excerpts as short-form videos on Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok.
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How to Listen

Patently Strategic is available on all major podcasting directories, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. We're also available on 12 other directories including Stitcher, iHeart Radio, and TuneIn, so you should be able to find us wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Resources.

To further explore the topics discussed, see the following past episodes and resources:

Related Episodes

• CAFC Chronicles: Costly Tales of Claim Construction Fails
• Patent Claims: The Name of the Game
• Claim Construction: Building Strong Patent Foundations
• Patent Anatomy: What's in a patent?​
• Patent Searching: Sleuthing Your Way to Stronger Patents
• Why Patents Exist with Professor Adam Mossoff
• Patent Wars: Innovators, Revolutionaries, and the Race to Reform
• American Inventor Horror Story: 10 Years of AIA and the PTAB

Related Reading

• Patent Anatomy: What's in a Patent?
• Patent Profanity Dictionary
• Enablement and Written Description: Hindsight Gotchas

Transcripts​
We're also providing computer-generated transcripts for improved accessibility and additional reference opportunities.

​​Slides
For the visual learners out there, we also like to make our presenter slides available for your reference.