Patent Terms Glossary

Patent

Definition:
A property right granted by the Government of the United States of America to an inventor “to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States.

Drawing

Definition:
Patent drawings must show every feature of the invention as specified in the claims. Omission of drawings may cause an application to be considered incomplete.

Substitute Patent Application

Definition:
An application which is in essence a duplicate of a prior (earlier filed) application by the same applicant abandoned before the filing of the substitute (later filed) application.

Non-final Office Action (rejection)

Definition:
An Office action letter that raises new issues and usually is the first phase of the examination process. An examining attorney will issue a non-final Office action after reviewing the application for the first time.

Copyright

Definition:
The legal right granted to an author, editor or publisher of an article, chapter or complete work.

Group Art Unit

Definition:
A working unit responsible for a cluster of related patent art. Staffed by one supervisory patent examiner (SPE) and a number of patent examiners who determine patentability on applications for a patent.

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