Oral proceedings before the European Patent Office (“EPO”) provide insight on patent application drafting for global prosecution.

There are several parts to a patent application: Title, Field of Invention, Background, Objects and/or Summary of Invention, Brief Description of Drawings, Detailed Description, Examples, Claims and Abstract. The Background sets up a problem previously existing in the art and provides a “sales pitch” for why the invention is patentable. The Objects and/or Summary of Invention should parallel the claims.

Ideally, the invention is presented as an advance and/or a solution, but it should not be stated that the invention must achieve a specific object (but rather that it is only advantageous to achieve the object). During a litigation, everything written in a patent application will be scrutinized and subject to interpretation.