What documents are needed to apply for a patent?
Go Back 
What documents are needed to apply for a patent? Video Transcript
Here, I am going to talk about which documents that you should submit with the patent application. You should always submit an IDS which is an invention Disclosure Statement to the Patent Office which shows what are the known prior art references that you know of that are material to patentability, so the examiner can evaluate them and determine what is the difference between your invention and the prior art. You do not have to have any statements which characterize the prior art, but you do have a duty to disclose that prior art to the Patent Office. Otherwise, your patent can get invalidated so it is important to do that. You also need to submit with the patent application a power of attorney if you have a legal representative that is filing it for you, a declaration of inventorship, an oath and declaration of inventorship saying that the inventors are the original inventors of the invention who have materially contributed at least one claim. You might also submit an assignment, if you are assigning the patent application to an entity like a business. You need to sign as assignment which gives that legal right of ownership to the business. People may also file with the petition to make special and doing the prosecution or with the application if they want it examined sooner. There is also more complicated and involved accelerated examination procedure at the Patent Office where you have to do a big search on a bunch of different filings at the time of the new application. The examiner would need to see that as well to evaluate the merits of your case. Those are the main components you submit along with your patent application. Certainly your main components for the patent application include the detailed description which helps someone understand the claims and provides support for your claims, the claims themselves or the legal boundaries of your invention and the figures which helped to explain the story of your invention to a federal jury. These are three primary components. There is a bunch of other sections of a patent application. Those are the different things that you submit along with the patent application. Once again, an IDS, Information Disclosure Statement, whether or not the petition was made special, you need to submit that, a power of attorney, you need to submit that, a declaration of inventorship which says “I am the original inventor” and an assignment to an entity if required.