The Patent Application

Abstract

The patent application, being a combination of a legal contract and a scientific paper, represents a unique written document. It is a scientific paper because it describes some technical achievement but differs from usual technical papers in that it must stand on its own to a greater extent than most technical papers. The patent represents a legal contract because it is actually a contract between the inventor and the people of the United States as represented by the government and, specifically, by the USPTO. In particular, the government gives the inventor the right to exclude others, for a limited period of time, from making, using, or selling the invention as defined by the claims. The consideration given by the inventor in the contract is publicly disclosing information concerning the invention.