A post from our student blogger Roberto
The past few weeks of classes have taught us a ton of information about drafting patents. We have drafted a picture claim for a patent, which describes an invention in all of its gory detail, and a broad claim, which describes an invention in as wide of terms as possible, in our patent application drafting class. Writing claims has not been easy for me. In many ways, it is similar to writing proofs of mathematical theorems and to say proofs were my least favorite of my mathematical career would be an understatement. However, after all the practice I think I am starting to get the hang of writing claims and I am starting to really appreciate them for the art form they are. Thankfully, we’ve had some practice writing them and will certainly have many more opportunities to build our skills in writing them. In our other classes we have searched national and worldwide patent databases and we have learned many of the laws and regulations involved with patent work.
In our Capstone projects we have all met many times with our inventors and are beginning to understand the technologies we are tasked with protecting. The next step for us is to game plan and figure out how we will craft a patent to protect it. As a kid I used to love board games like Risk and Monopoly. One of the reasons I loved those games, aside from the fact that I usually beat my siblings, was that it always took a certain amount of strategic planning to completely annihilate your opponent. So far that is how I have approached my Capstone project.
After every meeting with my inventor I try to condense my notes into my battle plan and attack strategy. I have quickly learned that this entire process is extremely fluid and dynamic and I constantly find myself revising my plan and realizing things I never saw before. I am so thankful to have this opportunity in the MSPL because I know it will pay dividends many times over in the real world.
After a late night of studying I took this picture of the beautiful Basilica of the Sacred Heart nestled in the heart of campus. Oddly enough when I was walking around that night I had no intention of taking any pictures but when I saw this awesome sight I couldn’t help but take a quick photo. It got me thinking about how far we’ve come these past few weeks in the MSPL and of our journey ahead. As the leaves change and the winds chill we will be busy preparing for the moment when those bells toll for the last time as we leave this campus and head out into the great unknown.