Innovation Snapshots

These short pieces present practical observations on invention development, patent strategy, and related topics. They are intended to highlight specific issues that arise in practice and to provide concise perspectives rather than comprehensive treatment. Each snapshot focuses on a particular point that may be relevant in the course of developing inventions, evaluating patentability, or managing intellectual property.

Patent Strategy for Innovation Development

These Snapshots address key strategic questions in developing and protecting new inventions, including patentability, timing, and freedom to operate.

• What Is a Fractional Patent Attorney?

• Does Your Company Need a Fractional Patent Attorney?

• Improving Patentability Before Filing

• Patentability and Marketability Are Different Questions

• What Features of an Invention Drive Commercial Value?

• What Is a Knock‑Out Patentability Search?

• What Is Freedom to Operate?

• When Should Patent Counsel Be Involved?

• When Should I File a Patent Application?

• What Is an Intellectual Property Strategy?

• Should You Use In‑House or Outside Patent Counsel?

Patent Procedures and Filing Strategies

These Snapshots explain the different types of patent applications and how to choose among them as part of an overall filing strategy.

• What Are the Different Types of Patent Applications?

• Provisional vs. Non‑Provisional Patent Applications

• Continuation, Divisional, and CIP Applications

• How Do I Get Patent Protection in Foreign Countries?

• Reissue and Reexamination Applications in the Correction of Patents

• What Happens After You File a Patent Application?

Patentability and Patent Prosecution

• Patentability and Patent Prosecution

• Patent Eligibility: What Types of Inventions Can Be Patented?

• Novelty: The Requirement That an Invention Be New

• Non-Obviousness: When an Invention Is Not Patentable Despite Being New

• Disclosure Requirements: Written Description, Enablement, and Best Mode

• Additional Requirements: Utility and Double Patenting

• Responding to Office Actions: How Patent Claims Are Shaped

Special Problems in Chemistry and Biotechnology

• Patenting Biotechnology Inventions: How Much Data Is Enough?

• Patent Eligibility in Biotechnology: Diagnostic Methods and Natural Phenomena

• Written Description and Enablement in Biotechnology: The Role of Deposits

• Sequence-Based Disclosure in Biotechnology

• Functional Claiming in Biotechnology

• Species and Genus Claims in Biotechnology and Chemistry

• Antibody and Protein Patent Claims in Biotechnology

• Patenting Antibodies: Why Structure Matters

• Novelty in Chemistry: Inherency and Accidental Anticipation

• Structural Obviousness in Chemistry

• Selection Inventions and the Interpretation of Ranges in Chemistry

• What Does "Heterologous" Mean in Biotechnology?

• The Advantages of cDNA in U.S. Patent Claims

• Sequence Identity and the Doctrine of Equivalents in Biotechnology Claims

• Promoters and Transcription Start Sites in Biotechnology Patent Claims

• Affinity vs Specificity in Antibody Technology

• Genetic-Code Degeneracy and Biotechnology Patents

• Gene Therapy and Biotechnology Patents

• Codon Optimization and Biotechnology Patents

• Sequence Identity and Biotechnology Patents: How Similar Is Similar Enough?