How to read a patent

Patents are valid only in the jurisdiction (country) that issued them.

The patent number is often followed by a letter code. For example, B1 signifies a Utility Patent that has not previously been published; B2 signifies a Utility Patent previously published as an application.

The Assignee is the owner of the patent. This may or may not be the same as the Inventor. For example, inventions created by employees within the scope of their employment are typically owned by their employer.

Patent protection typically lasts for 20 years from the earliest nonprovisional patent application filing date (not the issue date). In the example shown, the ’619 patent will be valid through June 22, 2042 (i.e., 20 years from the date of filing of the nonprovisional application, which was June 22, 2022).

A provisional application is a temporary placeholder that establishes an early filing date and gives inventors 1 year to refine their invention and build out a full application. A nonprovisional (or full) application is a formal application that is examined by the Patent Office and can lead to an issued patent.

The patent is enforceable after this date.

These are patents or publications that came before, and relate to, the invention that’s the subject of this patent. References flagged with an asterisk are those that the Patent Examiner found to be particularly relevant to the patentability of this patent. To be patentable, the invention must be distinguishable from prior inventions (e.g., a new, useful, non-obvious improvement to the prior invention).

A brief summary of the invention, including a basic understanding of the problem that the invention solves, how it works, and how it can be used.

This is simply so you can determine whether you have a complete copy of the patent.

These show what the invention looks like.

If this patent is related to other patents, or based on earlier-filed applications, it will be listed here. This information may be duplicative of information on the first page of the patent.

The background section describes the problem that the invention solves and how it is different from prior inventions.

This section describes in detail how the invention solves the problem and provides clear support for the Claims, often with references to the drawings. The description can be highly technical.

The claims, which are numbered and are typically at the end of the patent, define the limits of the patent’s coverage. In other words, the claims describe exactly what the patent does, and does not, protect. This is the most important part of the patent. There are typically around 20 claims in a patent.

Jump to a specific BlackRock patent

[1-10] [11-20] [21-30] [31-40] [41-45]