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It always comes to the mind of an inventor.. Why should an inventor draft a patent application, and then reveal it to other parties and people who publish it to the whole community? Does this action make the invention susceptible to being stolen from someone else?

In fact, we must know what the relationship is between the inventor and society, which the patent application forms and formulates in a way that guarantees both parties their full material and moral rights.

A patent application is a complete explanation of the details of the invention that the inventor has arrived at in an understandable manner. The professional specialized in the field of invention can implement the invention clearly, as the patent application is filed with the responsible authority in the country that is responsible for granting patents, which in turn publishes the patent application to the community, and this is often done electronically, and after a period of up to 18 months from the date of filing the patent application. Therefore, we can say that the inventor has provided an addition to the community by agreeing to publish his invention, which contributes to providing a technical addition to the community in exchange for obtaining an exclusive right that allows him to prevent the use, production or implementation of the invention without his permission if he obtains a patent. Also, no other inventor who has seen the patent application published by the authority responsible for patents will be granted a patent; whether it was filed in the same country or in another country. Thus, the inventor's right is preserved, whether his application is granted a patent or not for another reason.

Hence, the importance of formulating a patent application in a way that guarantees the inventor’s preservation of his rights. Neglecting a technical feature that may be important for implementing or developing the invention or a weakness in the description may result in the loss of huge sums of money if the invention has a high economic value. Therefore, at an international level, there are only specialists to formulate the patent application with different technical specializations, but this does not mean that the inventor does not also have the ability and knowledge of how to formulate a patent application. Here in this article, we will try to give the most important main features that must be available in a patent application.

Patent Application Components

A patent application has almost constant components and parts for all patent offices, which may vary in order but usually include:

• Name of the invention.
• Summary of the invention.
• Technical background of the invention.
• General description of the invention.
• Detailed description of the invention.
• Brief drawings if any.
• Claims (protection elements).

We always advise the inventor to review the patent system of the competent patent authority  (Saudi Arabia: the Saudi Patent Office) and its implementing regulations, in order to formulate the patent application to comply with the patent system and its implementing regulations so that the application is not rejected for not complying with the system and/or its regulations. 

It is worth noting that the Saudi Patent Office provides ready-made templates, which can be downloaded through their website, representing the parts of the application, and requires the applicant to fill them out electronically, taking into account the conditions stipulated in the executive regulations of the patent system, and then submit them electronically through the Saudi Patent Office’s electronic portal.

We will now discuss the most important notes on the parts of the patent application:

First: Name (title) of the invention:

Here it must be noted that a good invention name contributes to preserving the inventor's right, and this is achieved when the invention name specifically describes the invention, such that it is easy to access the patent application directly. To achieve this, the invention name must be characterized by the following:

• As brief a name as possible for the invention.
• Stay away from brand or descriptive names such as smart pen, economy car, Rolex watch.

Second: Summary of the invention:

The patent application abstract should include a brief description of the invention, the technical field it belongs to, and its main parts, with at least one drawing chosen, which represents the most important parts of the invention, if any. The abstract should usually not exceed 250-300 words.

Third: Technical background of the invention:

The technical background means what was presented in the prior art (all previous inventions) before the filing date of the current patent application. Therefore, the inventor is required to mention in this section all and/or most of the documents preceding the current application that are directly related to the application, mentioning the technical solution presented in those documents and the technical defects that the inventor discovered and/or noticed, and then found a different and/or more effective solution than those previous solutions, which he mentions after mentioning the previous solutions, and thus the reader of the application knows where the owner of the current invention started from and where he has reached technically.

Fourth: General description of the invention and detailed description:

Here the inventor presents his invention that he has arrived at, beginning by describing the technical problem that the prior art documents failed to find a solution for, and then he lists the solution(s) he has provided for that problem, indicating the technical advantages of his solution over the advantages of the prior art documents, and in the detailed description section he describes precisely how the solution presented in the invention can be implemented, coupled with descriptive examples (where possible) that explain how the invention can be implemented by a professional. The invention must also be described by referring to the illustrative drawings whenever available.

Fifth: Claims (protection elements):

This part is the most important part of the patent application, because it determines the size of the cake that the inventor demands to monopolize for himself and prevent others from it. From this part, the application is judged as new or not, innovative or lacking an innovative step.. and finally, industrially applicable or not, which are the conditions for obtaining a patent. Therefore, there are a number of conditions that must be followed when formulating the protection elements for the application, perhaps the most important of which is that the protection elements are supported (included) in the general description and/or the detailed description, and that the protection elements do not demand more than what was invented, in addition to other conditions that we may find another occasion to address.

Finally, do not be upset if you feel that drafting a patent application is theoretically difficult. You will find it easy after reviewing previous patent application documents and noticing the way they are drafted. You will find that they are written in the same way, even though they are different patent applications.