Outline
What a patent is, as a contract with government, as intellectual property; and what some common misconceptions about patents are, about its conception, its magic, its validity.
The computer software invention and its relation with software patents; invention and engineering; discovery and invention; non-statutory subject matter.
The statutory subject matter --- as processes: computer programs and product-by-process; as products: machine (apparatus), manufacture, and composition of matter.
Novelty --- prior art, anticipation, doctrine of inheritance, and use in public, experiment, or secret.
Utility --- useful and operability.
Non-obviousness --- negative rules of invention, non-obviousness standard, analogousness, equivalence, simplicity, predictability, superiority, optimization, and identifying the source of a problem and its solution.
The computer program-related inventions --- framework of laws, patent protection, multinational bodies, and policy.
Preparation of patent applications --- the patent specification: title and abstract, cross-references to other applications, background of the invention, summary of the invention, brief description of the drawings, detailed description of the best mode; duty of disclosure.
Patent claims --- analysis and synthesis: purpose of the patent claims, novel structure, implicit three unities, claim syntax, and claim grammar.
Prosecuting patent applications --- filing, restriction, rejections, correction, and re-examination.
Lecture
1. Patent Low
2. Examination Guidelines for Computer-Related Inventions
3. Novelty