What a patent application looks like and what it should contain

A patent application is basically a request filed at a patent office with the purpose of applying for an exclusive patent right for the territory covered by the chosen patent office. The patent application includes a request with the details of the applicant and a document describing and illustrating the invention one wishes to protect. Its length will vary depending on the invention, sometimes it consists of only 5 pages, while sometimes it is 30 pages long. The application includes different parts which will be briefly demonstrated below. 

But first, take a look at a real patent application: link. By clicking on the link, you can read an original document on Espacenet (the European Patent Office’s free patent database), and check what a patent application looks like in the real life.

Furthermore, the EPO has published three sample applications here, it is recommended to study these.

In this article the content of a patent application will be discussed in more general with the most important rules you need to remember. Without further ado, let's dive into our topic.

The documents making up the European patent application (description, claims, drawings and abstract) must be filed in a single copy. Each document making up the application (request, description, claims, drawings and abstract) must begin on a new sheet.

Claims

The most important and valuable part of the patent application is the claim(s). Claims are sometimes difficult to read, since they are long sentences written in patent language. However, as mentioned before, claims have the greatest significance, and furthermore, every patent application must include at least one claim, so it is useful to understand the purpose of the claims. 

The role of the claims: The scope of your exclusive right is determined by the claims. So, if your claim includes inessential features or anything that is unnecessary for the invention to work, your scope is probably too narrow, i.e. your patent can be easily circumvented.

According to the legal definition of the claims, they “must define the matter for which protection is sought in terms of the technical features of the invention. They must be clear and concise and supported by the description.”*

An easily understandable example of a claim is: "A furniture having at least three legs."

This claim covers all the chairs, tables and every furniture that has at least three legs. So, if I have a granted patent with this claim, I would have a highly valuable patent right, since the scope of the protection is very broad.

On the other hand, if my claim reads: "A chair having four legs and two armrests.", I only own right over chairs having exactly four legs and two armrests. My patent with this latter claim does not cover tables, chairs with three legs or chairs with four legs but no armrests. Anyone could manufacture and sell chairs with four legs as long as said chairs do not have armrests. I only have right over chairs having four legs and two armrests.

Thus, you can conclude how important each word in a claim is, and how easy it is to mess up and file a claim that is too narrow. Drafting claims is one of the tasks that patent attorneys study and practice a lot. Your patent attorney will help you reach the broadest claim possible. 

Do not forget that at the same time your claim has to be novel and inventive over the prior art documents, so a balance has to be found. If your claim is too broad and not novel, the patent will not be granted. However, that is what the examination process is for: during the examination, we, patent attorneys can argue with the patent office and can amend the claims, if necessary. This way, a claim can be finalized that both satisfies the requirements but provides value to its proprietor.

A real-life example for a claim from Tesla Motors:

"1. A battery pack thermal management system, said system including: a manifold; a plurality of temperature monitoring devices attached to a plurality of cells of the battery packs; a battery monitor board connected to said temperature monitoring devices; a plurality of cooling tubes connected to said manifold; a tube seal plug arranged over an end of said cooling tube; and an end fitting arranged on said end of said cooling tube."

Claims can be method claims as well. Let's see a real-life example (a random patent application of Mars Inc.):

"1. A method of making a shaped baked good, said method comprising:
preparing a dough including a starch, a fat and a sugar, wherein said dough has a moisture content before baking of from about 8% to about 15% w/w by weight of the shaped baked good;
shaping said dough into a webbed sheet comprising shaped dough regions, the shaped dough regions consisting of dough; wherein said shaping comprises inducing or forcing the dough into opposing cavities so that the shaped dough regions have an upper region above the webbed sheet and a lower region below the webbed sheet and wherein the upper and lower regions are substantially symmetric about a plane of the webbed sheet."

Description and drawings

The claims usually only take about 1-2 pages from the application, the longer sections are the description and the drawings, which are used to interpret the claims. Filing drawings is not mandatory.

Content of the description: The description has to specify the technical field, indicate the background art, the technical problem that the invention is designed to solve and describe the solution itself. Furthermore, it has to describe what is illustrated in any drawings and describe in detail at least one way of carrying out the claimed invention, typically using examples and referring to any drawings and the reference signs used in them. (Reference signs not mentioned in the description and claims must not be used in the drawings, and vice versa.)

The drawings can help illustrate the different embodiments and examples. For the correct disclosure of the invention, it is important to file good-quality drawings. 

Abstract

An abstract must be the part of the application as well. It is a concise (preferably not containing more than 150 words) summary with the purpose of giving brief technical information about the invention. The abstract is to be used as technical information only and cannot be used for interpreting the scope of the protection sought. So, basically, it does not have any role when examining the patent.

Reading the abstracts of other applications is particularly helpful when conducting a prior art search.

Language

The language in which the application has to be filed is prescribed by the patent office. The official languages of the European Patent Office (EPO) are English, French and German. However, applications can be filed at the EPO in any language. If the application is not filed in English, French or German, a translation has to be submitted (within 2 months). 

The 3 most important rules in connection with the application (at least regarding European patent applications):

1. The application must disclose the invention (Art. 83 EPC)

   You have to describe the invention in detail and you have to provide at least one way of carrying out your invention. You must disclose all essential features for carrying out the invention to make it understandable to the skilled person.**

   Because of the next point, it is almost impossible to overcome an objection stating that your application does not disclose the invention sufficiently. You can read more about this on the EPO’s website: link.
        

2. You cannot add subject matter after filing (Art. 123(2) EPC)

   Amendments allowed in the application are very limited after filing, and the EPO is examining this quite rigorously. It is not allowed to add new subject matter to the application after the filing date.*** You cannot add new features, new examples, new embodiments or new explanations, for example in order to remedy deficiencies. That is the reason why it is imperative to file a very good, professionally drafted application initially.

   Let's see an example. You filed a patent application disclosing a chair with four legs, but after you receive the search report, you realize that your invention is not new, other chairs with four legs already exist. You quickly figure out a way to make your invention new: by adding two armrests. Although the invention with the addition of the armrests might be new, this amendment is not allowed.

   Another example could be changing a range from 10-100°C to 30-60°C, after realising that 10-100°C is too broad and not novel. However, this amendment is also not allowed, if the range 30-60°C was not mentioned in your application as originally filed.

   So, you cannot add new features to your invention after you filed the patent application. (It would provide unfair advantage to inventors if they were allowed to improve their inventions continuously while the patent is pending.) This is why a prior art search before filing can be really useful, because if you are aware of the similar patent applications, you can improve your invention in time, before filing.

3. Requirement of unity: applications can relate to a single invention only (Art. 82 EPC)

   European patent applications must relate to a single invention only (or to a group of inventions forming a single general inventive concept, e.g. a plug and the corresponding socket).**** Consequently, you cannot save money by filing a single patent application for three different inventions, even if all those inventions relate to the same technical field.

   The basic principle behind the requirement of unity is that a patent is granted for each invention separately.

And a final reminder at the end of this long article:

Do not forget that your invention will become available to the public after the publication of your patent application. While you have to describe your invention in a way that it is possible "to be carried out by a person skilled in the art"**, and it will be publicly available, you are not required to disclose the best possible version when filing a European patent application. (This is different in the US.)

* This is defined in Art.84 EPC:
”The claims shall define the matter for which protection is sought. They shall be clear and concise and be supported by the description.”
See the full legal text here.

** This is defined in Art.83 EPC:
"The European patent application shall disclose the invention in a manner sufficiently clear and complete for it to be carried out by a person skilled in the art."
See the full legal text here.

*** This is defined in Art.123(2) EPC:
"The European patent application or European patent may not be amended in such a way that it contains subject-matter which extends beyond the content of the application as filed."
See the full legal text here.

**** This is defined in Art.82 EPC:
”The European patent application shall relate to one invention only or to a group of inventions so linked as to form a single general inventive concept.”
See the full legal text here.

Author: Zsofia Pintz
Published: August 2020
Updated: July 2023