Chapter 2. The Patent Document

Imagine you are a programmer learning a new computer language. When you are given a program in the new language, the syntax is usually obscure even if the overall constructs are familiar. Repeated exposure and study may alert you to reserved words and give you an idea of their meaning, but fully understanding the program requires you to know the syntax and semantics of the language as well as the problem domain addressed by the code.

Patents are the type of intellectual property that most closely resemble code in this context. A well-written patent document is highly structured, with required sections, definitions, reserved words, and “program flow” constructs.