I recently gave a workshop for one of the large German automotive suppliers on how they can help their developers produce better invention disclosures for their software-based, digital, and increasingly virtual inventions. This presentation compiles my top tips. For more: https://bastianbest.de/free/

1. Patents for
the digital
future
BESTPATENT
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
Let‘s create awesome
software patents together!
In-house inventor training
16 July 2021

2. Patents for
the digital
future
2
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
Before we begin…

3. Patents for
the digital
future
3
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
Source: EPO website “Fourth Industrial Revolution”

4. Patents for
the digital
future
4
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
WHY PATENTS?
Monopoly vs. public disclosure

5. Patents for
the digital
future
5
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
INVENTION
FILING
DATE
T=0
PUBLI-
CATION
18m
PROSECUTION PATENT LIFETIME
PATENT
GRANTED
2-5y
PATENT
EXPIRED
20y
PUBLIC
DOMAIN

6. Patents for
the digital
future
6
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
1. How the European Patent Office treats
software patents
2. How to write the perfect invention
disclosure for a software invention

7. Patents for
the digital
future
7
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
1. How the EPO treats
software patents

8. Patents for
the digital
future
8
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
INVENTION
OBVIOUS?
PRIOR ART
(EVERYTHING ALREADY
KNOWN SOMEWHERE
IN THE WORLD)
NON-TECHNICAL
DIFFERENCE
TECHNICAL
DIFFERENCE
NON-TECHNICAL
DIFFERENCE
TECHNICAL
DIFFERENCE

9. Patents for
the digital
future
9
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
EUROPEAN PATENTS FOR SOFTWARE?
YES, if there‘s an inventive
technical contribution.

10. Patents for
the digital
future
10
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
CONTROL QUESTION
Does it solve a technical
problem?

11. Patents for
the digital
future
11
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
TECHNICAL NON-TECHNICAL
- Controlling a technical system or process
(self-driving cars, drones, robotics, automation)
- Image processing (face recognition, medical
analysis), language processing (voice
assistants, machine translation, NPL)
- Data coding (error correction, compression)
- Cryptography (encrypting, decrypting, signing of
messages)
- Mathematic methods
- Business methods
- Core AI/ML
- Text classification
- Purely virtual simulations

12. Patents for
the digital
future
12
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
2. How to write the perfect
invention disclosure for a
software invention

13. Patents for
the digital
future
13
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
GENERAL TIPS
- Don’t try to write a patent. Write in plain
technical language. No “legalese”.
- Avoid company-internal slang. Use common
terminology.
- Don’t try to make it sound physical if it isn’t.
Explain the function, its interactions and its
effects.

14. Patents for
the digital
future
14
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
WRITE AN ELEVATOR PITCH
“In the field of <…>, it is
common to <…>. But the
problem is that <…>. The
invention solves this by <…>*.”
* High-level, mostly functional explanation of the inventive concept
which covers all specific facets of its preferred realizations.

15. Patents for
the digital
future
15
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
THE INVENTIVE PRINCIPLE
- Which technical problems does the
invention solve?
- How does the invention solve these
problems?
- Why is that better than the prior art?
- Why is the solution uncommon/surprising?

16. Patents for
the digital
future
16
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
THE CONCRETE REALIZATION
- How can the invention be put into practice?
- One complete “walkthrough” with a concrete
example
- Possible workarounds?

17. Patents for
the digital
future
17
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
THE TECHNICAL EFFECTS / GENERAL BENEFITS
- Any conceivable technical applications / use
cases
- Any technical considerations about the
hardware
- What’s the overall competitive advantage?

18. Patents for
the digital
future
18
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
BESTPATENT
THE INVENTION HIERARCHY
- Known, but necessary features
- Unique and necessary invention features
(minimum viable conceptual model)
- Unique but optional invention features

19. Patents for
the digital
future
BESTPATENT
Brought to you by Bastian Best Patentanwalt www.bestpatent.eu
European Patent Attorney bastian@bestpatent.eu
FOR MORE FREE INFORMATION:
bastianbest.de/free