US Patent Application

The U.S. patent is one of the most sought-after and important patents in the world. A U.S. patent provides legal protection in the U.S. market, which is considered to be the world's leading market in many different fields.

Although a U.S. patent protects the market only in the United States, in our experience a U.S. patent can have other marketing and commercial effects outside the United States as well. There are markets outside the United States where obtaining a U.S. patent is a hallmark of a patent-protected invention.

In addition, there are technological fields (for example semiconductor chips) in which it is not worthwhile for a competitor to produce a unique version of the chip for the United States that did not infringe on a US patent – and another unique version of the chip (for marketing outside the United States) that overwrites the U.S. patent.

Americans pride themselves on a unique patent system and an elaborate legal system that issues a large number of decisions relating to patent interpretation, patent enforcement and revocation.

The examination can be accelerated in various ways (one way is with an acceleration request on filing), and you can request that the application is not published (only if specific conditions are met).

Filing an American patent application is the beginning of the examination process that is accompanied by the objections of the Patent Office, and the responses of the applicant's patent attorneys. There are a wide variety of objections – for example, we note an application to split the patent into several patents (when the examiner believes that one application is trying to protect several inventions), non-final office action and final office action (here we will note that even final office action does not necessarily constitute the end of the examination). And there are several ways to respond to the various objections - for example, a formal response, conducting an interview with the examiner, appealing a final office action, filing a request for examination before filing a full appeal, opening the hearing after a final office action, and more.

U.S. law allows for different types of continuation applications to be filed to existing applications. A continuation application can only be filed under certain conditions. For example, a continuation application that does not add new technical material to a previous application can only be filed as long as the previous application is under review (it was not abandoned or patented). Another continuation application can add new technical material compared to the previous one – but can only be filed within a strict timeframe.

Preparing a patent application and the entire litigation process with the US Department of Justice requires unique specialization.

Our firm has over 20 years of experience in this field.