The European Patent Office has nullified a patent from massive aerospace company Boeing because of the inconsistent placement of a comma in a claim. Airbus, a competitor to Boeing, opposed the patent for a multi-network aircraft communication system. Boeing fought for nearly nine years to keep the patent in-force. This was clearly an important patent for Boeing.
One thing I try to get across to entrepreneurs with big aspirations is that writing patents is extraordinarily complex and, quoting directly from the Supreme Court, “constitute one of the most difficult legal instruments to draw with accuracy.” Even where you put a comma in a single claim in a document with thousands of words and dozens of pages can make the difference between a valuable patent and a worthless one.
Good patent prosecutors are expensive for a reason. Cutting corners to save money and taking the attitude that any attorney can do the job as well as the next can be catastrophic, as we see here. Getting a patent is one thing. Getting a good, enforceable patent that your company can rely on is a totally different ballgame.
At Patent Authority we don’t misplace commas. Contact us to make sure your patents are done right.