Patents: Reading or Deciphering U.S. Patents

Similar to journal articles, patents have a few main components. Normally,  patents have all these parts, but not always.

• Front page

• Drawings

• Specifications

• Claims

Our Example

As we look at deciphering a patent, let's use an example. This one is titled Unicycle with Inner Leg Supports (patent number: 9,533,727).

Similar to a journal article, the first page of a patent has a lot useful information.

Typical parts

There are numbers in parenthesis by each bit of information here, which aren't presented in numerical order. This is not a comprehensive list.

• (12) Document type

• (10) Patent number

• (45) Date of publication by printing of a granted patent 

• (54) Invention title

• (71) Applicant

• (72) Inventor

• (*) Term extension notice

• (21) Patent application number

• (22)  Date application was filed

• (65) Prior publication data (if patent published while it was a pending application)

• (51) International patent classification

• (52) U.S. Patent Classification (eg. CPC)

• (58) Field of search (the searches done by the Examiner when reviewing the patent)

• (56) References cited (prior art listed on patent application or those found by the Examiner during review)

• (74) Name of attorney, firm, or agent 

• (57) Abstract

Our example

Common Types

• Perspective or 3D

• Section or cut-away

• Exploded or expanded view

• Block diagram

• Flowchart

Important to Know

• The captions or descriptions are on later pages.

• The parts are numbered, and these numbers are referred to in the description.

  • If a part number is underlined, it just means it's referring to the part on which it's superimposed (rather than having a arrow point to it).

• Occasionally a drawing of a prior art is included; these aren't part of the patented invention and will be labeled as Prior Art.

Our example

In this example we see Fig. 1 and Fig. 2.

The numbered parts correlate between the figures. For example number 114, in both figures points to the tire. 

We can also see in Fig. 1 that parts 120, the pedal, is underlined because the number fits on top of the part. Whereas in Fig. 2, there is an arrow pointing to part 120, so it's not underlined.

This consists of all the textual parts of the patent, excluding the first page information and claims. 

Typical Parts

• Title of patent

• Background of invention

• Summary of invention

• Brief description of drawings

• Detailed description

Important to Know

• Each column is numbered for reference, in bold centered at the top.

• There are reference numbers for each line, between the two columns.

Our example

The parts are well labeled, eg. background, summary, description of drawings, and detailed description. Similar to sections in an article.

Important to Know

• The claims section is a numbered list of individual, though often rather lengthy, sentences.
• The claims set the limits of what the patent does and doesn't cover. For this reason they are often written legalistically and therefore not easy to read or understand.
• As mentioned, this guide is not designed to help with patent applications. If you are doing this kind of research, you are best seeking professional help from someone like a patent attorney when trying to determine the legal specifics of a patent's claims. Miami University Libraries does not offer this type of assistance.

Our example

This is just a small portion of the claims section.

We can see the bold numbers for each claim (numbers 3-11 in this screenshot).

We can also see that often each claim refers back to previous claims. Often here to claim 1, but sometimes other preceding claim numbers.