The Mechanics of Filing a Patent

The act of filing a patent does not imply that you own any legal protection. Filing means that your patent application, together with various legal forms and an application fee, has been deposited with the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) for examination. An office action is a formal review filed by the patent examiner that either allows the patent or states the examiner´s reasons for disallowing some or all of your proposed claims. It is almost never the case that your patent will be allowed on the first office action. In this article, the author explains why this is and tries to help you with guidelines to keep the number of office actions small