US 6,049,811: method to draft patent applications

Back in June, 2000 (Intellectual Property Today, Increasingly Aggressive Efforts at Patent Enforcement), we mentioned US 6,049,811, which disclosed a method to draft patent applications.

Claim 1 recites:

1. A machine for drafting a patent application having at least sections including claims, a summary of the invention, an abstract of the disclosure, and a detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, said machine comprising:

one or more input devices, one or more output devices, and a computer with memory for receiving and storing data from the input devices, transmitting data to the output devices, and storing program steps for program control and manipulating data in memory;

the computer, through input and output devices, requests and stores primary elements (PE) of the invention that define the invention apart from prior technology before the claims are drafted;

the claims are drafted before the summary of the invention, abstract, and the detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention is drafted; and

the computer requires drafting the sections in a predetermined order prohibiting jumping ahead to draft a latter section.

The '811 has been cited by five patents, including 6,574,645, which is a continuation of the '811. [This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/756,444 filed Nov. 26, 1996 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,811. ]

For the litigation-minded, there is US 6,607,389, “Systems and Methods for Making Jury Selection Determinations.” Cited by no US patents, the '389 has as its first claim:

. A method of conducting a mock trial exercise in a lawsuit pending before a court at law, the method utilizing a first attorney for a first party in the lawsuit and a second attorney for a second, opposing party in the lawsuit, and comprising:

assembling an initial pool of potential mock jurors;

questioning members of the initial pool, in a manner that resembles as closely as possible a manner in which a venire will be questioned during the actual trial;

striking members of the initial pool for cause, in a manner that resembles as closely as possible a manner in which members of the venire will be struck for cause during the actual trial;

permitting the first attorney and the second attorney each to make a predetermined number of peremptory strikes of members of the initial pool, the number of peremptory strikes permitted to each attorney corresponding as closely as possible to the number of peremptory strikes that will be permitted at the actual trial;

assembling a probable jury comprising members of the initial pool not struck for cause and not struck using a peremptory strike;

assembling a stricken jury comprising members of the initial pool struck for cause or struck using a peremptory strike;

presenting by the first attorney and the second attorney to both the probable jury and the stricken jury at least a summary of the case to be presented at trial.