Customer Reviews

How to Make Patent Drawings: A Patent It Yourself Companion

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

On the last couple of patent applications I submitted, I ended up doing 90% of the drawings myself because it turned out to be easier than continuously having to correct the mistakes of the draftsman. My attorney said that my drawings just needed to be shaded and cleaned up a bit, and have the legends applied, but otherwise what ended up going into the applications was essentially my drawings with a few more bells and whistles. His draftsman had just put them on a light table and copied them as is. But I still had to pay for the drawings!

This book was able to get me the rest of the way there by detailing the regulations that the USPTO puts on drawings. They're not really difficult, but they ARE specific. Don't be intimidated by them. The very simple drawing style specified by the USPTO is to allow clear reproduction and printing. My attorney charges $295 per figure, and one page can have 2 or 3 figures on it! The last application we submitted had about a dozen figures total. Some of the expense is the work of integrating and describing the drawings, but it is guaranteed to save you money if you do your own drawings. Besides, this ensures that you will be satisfied with the quality and accuracy. Don't forget you can also have the draftsman do the difficult 3-D "Figure 1" bit, and you do the simpler stuff. Like me, I'll bet you'll find it easier than you thought!

I have all of David Pressman's books on patenting, you know why? Because I filed my own patent using these books. That's how good they are. They really do have step by step instructions. He also has software that helps you prepare the docs. I sort of used that as well. Again, reasonable priced, and useful. I strongly recommend these books for anyone that wants to File a Patent. They will allow you to do it yourself without an attorney.

I bought this book and Patent Pending in 24 Hours. The latter was a complete disappointment (read my review of it). This book however, was fairly detailed and answered quite a few questions for me. I am trained as a Graphic Designer. So I was very interested in doing the drawings myself on the computer. While the book focuses on traditional drawings for the most part, the information is still relevant for computer drawings. The book tells you what parts you need to draw and what to leave out. It also talks about how to shade the different elements. Which is one of the major things the examiner uses to differentiate the parts of your invention that connect or are attached. The book also goes into detail about how to label your figures and numbering of parts.
The one thing that did bother me about this book is that more than once they tell you to reference Patent It Yourself for more information. I bought this book because it implies that it will tell you everything you need to know about making patent drawings. I thought it was ridiculous that they spread the information out into their other book as a ploy to make more money. Luckily, there is enough information here to do what you need to do.
Overall I thought the book is a good collection of information. Despite the references to their other book.

This book is well written and up to date. I needed detailed information on shading and it was covered very well. If your new to patent drawings, this is covers the subject well.

I found this book to be excellent. Lot's of information and concisely written. A MUST reference if you are planning to make your own patents. Some good info on CAD drafting software, also.

At the outset, I'll tell young people that two of the most valuable classes I took in high school were geometry and drafting. Half-decent vector drawing seems to be a rare talent. Today, being able to draw a single line in something like Inkscape, saving it as SVG, modifying the SVG in a text editor like Notepad++, then reopening the modified vector drawing -- that's still a rare talent. I wish more people could make good diagrams.

Chapters:
1 General Introduction to Drawing
2 Drawing With Pen, Ruler, and Instruments
3 Drawing With a Computer
4 Using a Camera
5 Patent Drawings in General
6 Utility Patent Drawings
7 Design Patent Drawings
8 General Standards
9 Responding to Office Actions

The first three cover the basics of vector drawing, and would be valuable for almost anyone seeking a career in anything. Making good layouts, and good diagrams -- priceless. The programs mentioned in chapter 3; Autosketch, DesignCad, SmartDraw, TurboCad; are fairly good, but check Wikipedia's list of vector drawing software. Play around with the free Vector programs. Constructive solid geometry (CSG) packages are also becoming popular, and some of those are also free.

Chapter 5, 6, 7 go into the details of simplifying a drawing, and why it's important. I did not know many of these details, even though I've gotten figure-heavy patents granted. I had sufficiently simple drawings. These chapters, and chapter 9, would have been very valuable to me if I hadn't been lucky.

If you're doing patent drawings, highly recommended.

This book is not as good as I hoped. It is nowhere as good as Nolo's "Patent It Yourself."

Lots of components are not shown as examples. (Not a single spring, for example.) They don't have setup information for CAD. No online updates or additional material (like the Patent It Yourself does). Index is not helpful.

I would have liked to see a reference table that lists, say 50 types of drawing, and for each type, a list of patents that the reader could look at for more examples.

I would like to see a CAD symbol library -- even a small one.

I would like to see a "List of Common Mistakes" and suggestions on finding and managing drafting agencies.

Still, not bad for complete beginner.

If you know absoultely nothing about making drawings, then this book will help because it starts with this is a pencil and this is paper. If you have basic mechanical drawing skills, then you already know 85% of what's in here. What you do need to know is the difference between typical mechanical drawings and patent drawings. For a beginner, it is probably pretty good. If you can draw, it could have been reduced to about 10 pages.

I did find the other book in the series regarding patents useful. However, I know nothing about patents.

Very good reference manual. Good overview of drawing requirements and includes the detail needed to be successful completing the required drawings for patent submissions. I will keep this book close by for use as a fast reference when needed.

Great book, easy to understand with plenty of drawing samples and clear, precise, instructions on what to do, and what not to do, when producing drawings you want to submit in a patent application.