In the US electronic submissions are preferred (read required). Anything that ends up with a readable PDF that is clear is acceptable. Some drawings I have seen look like PC paint tracings. What matters is if an examiner can read the drawings and understand what you are proposing. You do need to number the key parts and describe them in clear text.
A year or so ago I sent a bunch of KiCAD schematics and a description to a patent attorney and he used them for the application and didn't complain about them. He did add numbers, but that's all - apparently normal reference designators like C6 aren't acceptable, each component needs to have a positive integer number. That is, he left the normal reference designators on the schematic but also gave each component a number.
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By the way, whatever you do, don't disclose your invention before applying for a patent. When you, for example, put a schematic showing your invention on this forum, it is no longer patentable.
If applying in the US, you can disclose (provably done by you) at most one year before submitting your application, even the provisional one.
That's weird. The purpose of patents is to get companies to publish their inventions, so why does the USA grant patents to things that are already published?
1 year grace period, https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep-9015-appx-l.html#al_d1d85b_11e7d_172 described e.g. https://www.patenttrademarkblog.com/inventor-grace-period-late-apply-patent/ . IMO it's a useful and practical rule, especially for individual applicants.
Hi Bernhard,
the best is to refer to the source: https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s1606.html.
This is, what the USPTO is lookingf for when examining the drawings: https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s507.html.
Hi MarcelvdG, phofman,
the U.S. is not the only country that has a "grace period" provision. The policies and implementations are varied among patent treaties, e.g., Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), European Patent Convention (EPC), and individual countries, but the underlying ideas are/were allowing limited exposure to judge an interest, sale of the product, and protection of the inventors.
This is one of the papers exploring both the policy considerations and the different application by different patent systems.
Study mandated by the Tegernsee Heads: grace period
Kindest regards,
M
the best is to refer to the source: https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s1606.html.
This is, what the USPTO is lookingf for when examining the drawings: https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s507.html.
Hi MarcelvdG, phofman,
the U.S. is not the only country that has a "grace period" provision. The policies and implementations are varied among patent treaties, e.g., Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), European Patent Convention (EPC), and individual countries, but the underlying ideas are/were allowing limited exposure to judge an interest, sale of the product, and protection of the inventors.
This is one of the papers exploring both the policy considerations and the different application by different patent systems.
Study mandated by the Tegernsee Heads: grace period
Kindest regards,
M
Thanks for the suggestions, here is a schematic from Microcap with different modifications made in Photoshop, I think the last one is good.
