Good Patents Are Easy To Read.
This is a reproduction of Investing in Patents by Russ Krajec. For the complete book, get it on Amazon.
If you can't understand a patent application, neither can the patent examiner, nor the infringer, nor anyone who will buy the company.
Sometimes, the technology is very, complicated, and the patent application will reflect that. But when the document is virtually unintelligible, the value is severely discounted.
Unintelligible patents are the hallmark of patents written by someone who does not understand the invention or by someone who wants to make the patent so obtuse that they need to go to court. In either case, the patent does not have much value.
Many inventors boast that they did not understand their patent application because their attorney used "legalese. Some even joke that it was so dense that they did not even know if their invention was in there.
Make no mistake about it: a good patent is easy to read. It is difficult to write a clear description, and it takes ingenuity, thoughtfulness, and a big effort (read: motivation) to fully understand the invention, digest it to its essence, and write a clear description.
The key to good writing comes from sixth grade book reports: clear topic sentences for every paragraph, clear and simple sentence structure, and direct, active voice whenever possible.
Why does it hurt a patent when it is badly written? The first and foremost way it hurts is that the attorney did not understand the invention and probably made omissions or errors in describing the invention, not to mention the problems with examination and assertion that were covered elsewhere in this book.
Many people might say that they are not a technical or legal expert and incorrectly assume that they should not understand the patent. This is not true.
Patents are business documents that are read and understood by real people, not attorneys. When the patent is litigated, the patent is read by a judge and jury, who are common, ordinary people. If a normal person cannot understand the patent, neither can they.
For badly written patents, the risk factors include a higher possibility of Inter Partes Reexamination (IPR) reversal, difficulty of licensing or selling the patent, and general uncertainty about what the patent actually means. Discounting for all those risks, a badly written patent may have no value whatsoever.