|
The Three Types of Patent/Trademark Drawings
So what makes PowerCADD and WildTools so perfect for this
(or any) drafting? I began with ClarisCAD because it made
sense and worked the same way that humans actually think (which
is, of course, the same reason I prefer the Reverse Polish Notation
Operating System of the Hewlett Packard calculators, but that's
another story).
In this business, there are three types of entities that can
be prepared by an illustrator for the USPTO. The first
is the Utility Patent which is the protection of the idea behind
how a thing works. This can be further subdivided into
Process Patents which protect a process such as manufacturing
or production. In these cases, scale and actual size are
unimportant, and dimensioning of the drawing is prohibited unless
the actual dimensions are inventive by their nature. Only
the concept of how a machine or process works is important. Many
times the actual machine does not exist at all except in the
inventor's head, and it's my job to get inside there and get
it out for all to see.
It can get pretty hairy. Because we are drawing conceptually,
WildTools is perfect. In particular, I used to shy away
from a 3D representation, because everything had to be manually
skewed to the various planes, and this was very trial and error.
Now I can take a photograph of a machine and scan it, then
place the scan onto a drawing layer and draw lines for the major
axes. From PowerCADD's Edit Window I can determine their
angle and input these values into the WildTools 3D Cube and take
off tracing the invention with everything constraining itself
to the proper angles. Not only do I not shy away from a
perspective view any more, I actually prefer it because it is
usually much more illustrative than several orthographic views.
The second type is the Design Patent whose purpose is to protect
nothing other than the appearance of an object -- the way it
looks. In this case there are no reference numbers pointing out
inventive elements; there are only Figure Numbers denoting the
(usually) six orthographic views plus a seventh perspective view.
The only requirement here is complete disclosure of the
object's appearance and whatever it takes to reveal it clearly
and completely. A ball or sphere would, of course, have
only one required view. Other inventions of greater complexity
may require more than the seven views and can include more than
one perspective and even sectional views are allowed if they
are necessary for full disclosure. Again, PowerCADD and
WildTools are doubly important in producing these with speed
and accuracy. My clients can't believe I can produce the
drawings at all sometimes, much less with the speed with which
they can expect them.
Third is the Trademark Drawing.
This can be a logo, slogan, words or shapes that constitute
a unique appearance that will always be associated with a particular
product or entity. These must appear on an 8 1/2 x 11 drawing
sheet no bigger than four inches square centered one inch from
the bottom of the page. For the longest time colors could
be represented by 8 different hatch patterns if the colors were
considered part of the Trademark. No one would recognize
the Pepsi logo with a green top and yellow bottom with orange
words. This requirement has been suspended recently, and
only shapes are to be drawn with the colors indicated by the
text of the application.
Mark Rhodes
|
