Patent Drafting

3 units

Enrollment limit: 20. This course covers evaluation of patentability, application filing deadlines, the drafting of patent claims, and the preparation, filing, and prosecution of patent applications to the issuance of a patent; the ownership of inventions and transfer of patent rights. Activities will include conducting patent searches and preparing patentability opinions; drafting patent applications; preparing responses to office actions; and confronting intellectual property issues related to strategic commercial transactions involving the inventions contained in the patent applications. The course work includes weekly claim drafting assignments, the preparation of a complete patent application and a response to an Office Action, all of which are graded anonymously. The course work also includes a brief law-firm style memo and corresponding oral presentation which, because of the nature of the assignments, are not graded anonymously. A background in engineering or science is highly recommended, although the assignments are selected to be technology neutral. 3 units.