Read and Understand Patents

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This page deals with an example patent, 6,928,433 [PDF]. The left column (indicated by the blue section on the thumbnail) is shown. Hover your mouse over various items to see explanations of their meaning and significance.

Last name of the first inventor
A short title chosen by the inventor
All inventors' names, cities, and countries of residence
The entity that owns rights to the patent
Attorney who represented the inventor and prepared the patent
Application number assigned by the USPTO when they receive the application
The date the USPTO received the patent application, which triggers the 20-year lifetime of a patent
International and U.S. technology classifications
The U.S. technology classification categories that the patent examiner searched in their database to find prior art
The prior art that the Patent Examiner studied to judge whether the invention was new and non-obvious, including domestic and foreign patents, technical articles and web sites

Quiz

Check your understanding by finding the answers to the below questions (click questions to see answers).

Who are the inventors?

Ron Goodman and Howard N. Egan.

Who owns the rights to the patent?

The owner of the patent rights is called the Assignee: Creative Technology LTD. This is often a corporation, can be more than one person or corporation, and may or may not represent the inventors, depending on any agreements made when drafting the patent.

When was the patent applied for?

This is the filing date, shown under the heading Filed: Jan 5, 2001. This date determines priority if two parties apply for a patent on the same idea; that is, unless the parties apply within one year of each other, in which case hard proof of the date of invention must be supplied to settle the dispute.

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