Patent It Yourself - PDF Archive

414 | Patent it YOURSELF
be of a clerical or minor nature and must have occurred in
good faith. Examples are a wrong reference numeral or an
omitted line or word. (The fee for a Certificate of Correction
to fix your error is listed in Appendix 4, Fee Schedule.) To
obtain a Certificate of Correction (printer’s fault or yours),
do the following:
Step 1: Fill out Forms 15-1 and 15-2. In Form 15-1 (the
request letter), insert the patent number, issue date,
patentee(s), Ser. Nr., filing date, and the date you
mailed the form. Check paragraph 2 if the error is
the fault of the PTO; check paragraph 3 and insert
the amount from the Fee Schedule if the error is
your fault.
In either case (whether you checked paragraph
2 or 3), in paragraph 4 list the places in the
application file where the errors occurred and
explain who was at fault; for example:
“4. Specifically, on p. 4, line 12, of the specification,
applicant erroneously typed ‘42’ instead of ‘24’ and
neither applicant nor the examiner detected this
error during prosecution.”
or
“4. Specifically, on p. 4, line 12, of the specification,
the reference numeral ‘24’ has been erroneously
printed by the GPO in the patent as ‘42’ instead of
‘24.’”
Step 2: Complete the caption of Form 15-2 with the patent
number, issue date, and inventor(s). (The PTO
also furnishes carbon sets of the Certificate of
Correction form for free.) In the body of Form 15-
2, indicate the necessary corrections to the actual
printed patent by (a) sandwiching existing words to
be changed, deleted, or followed by an insert with
quotes and (b) sandwiching words to be inserted
with dashes; for example:
“Col. 3, line 54, change ‘the diode’ to —varistor
23—.”
“Col. 4, line 21, after “a” insert —red—.
“Col. 5, line 58, delete “the former.”
Put your return address and the patent number
on the bottom of Form 15-2.
Step 3: If you’re a registered eFiler you can file the Request
and the Certificate by EFS-Web, but if not, send
one copy of completed Form 15-1 and two copies
of completed Form 15-2 to ATTN: Certificate of
Correction Branch, Commissioner for Patents,
P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450, with a
receipt postcard, and a check for the correct amount
if the error was your fault. You’ll get an approved
copy of your Form 15-2 back in several months and
the PTO will affix copies of it to the copies of your
patent that it maintains in its storage facilities and
will include the Certificate as the last page of the
patent on its Internet site.
D. Patent Number Marking
If you already have sales blurbs promoting your invention,
change them to indicate that your invention is “patented”
rather than “patent pending.” If you, or a licensee of yours,
is manufacturing a product embodying the invention, you
should consider marking your product with the patent
number.
A section of the patent laws (35 USC 287) states that
products embodying a patented invention may be marked
with the legend “Pat.” or “Patent,” followed by the patent
number. If you make or sell products embodying your
invention that are properly marked, you can recover
damages from any infringers you sue from the date you
began marking, whether they see your notice or not. If you
make or sell products but don’t mark them with your patent
number, or mark them “Patented” without the number,
your rights are reduced and you can recover damages only
from the date you notify the infringer of infringement, or
from the date you file suit against the infringer, whichever
is earlier.
You should do the actual marking on the product itself,
on its package, or by means of a label affixed to the product.
Suppose you don’t manufacture any product embodying
the invention, or if the invention relates to a process that’s
not associated with a product and hence can’t be marked. In
these cases you can recover damages from an infringer for
the entire period of infringement without marking.
The disadvantage of patent marking is that any sophisticated
person who wants to copy your product can easily see
the number of your patent, order the patent, read its claims,
and attempt to design around the claims of your patent. If
you don’t mark your product, the potential infringer can
still probably get this same information, but only through
a lot more expense and effort. In other words, by not marking
you may depend in part on human inertia to protect
your invention from being copied. Many companies, therefore,
favor not marking their patented products, or simply
marking them “Patented” without including the number.
They rely on their own familiarity with the field to enable
them to quickly spot and promptly notify any infringer of
the existence of the patent.