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[JimIvey]

Why do some practitioners insist on starting the most substantive (and potentially interesting) part of a patent with lengthy boilerplate? 

To me, that's much like asking the reader, prior to delving in an already dry and tedious text, to please take an Ambien(R).

Perhaps they should at least keep the boilerplate in a section with its own heading, something like "ANAL AND MOSTLY UNNECESSARY BOILERPLATE" -- right between BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS and DETAILED DESCRIPTION.

Okay, I feel better....  Thanks for listening.

[bleedingpen]

Why do some practitioners insist on starting the most substantive (and potentially interesting) part of a patent with lengthy boilerplate? 

To me, that's much like asking the reader, prior to delving in an already dry and tedious text, to please take an Ambien(R).

Perhaps they should at least keep the boilerplate in a section with its own heading, something like "ANAL AND MOSTLY UNNECESSARY BOILERPLATE" -- right between BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS and DETAILED DESCRIPTION.

Okay, I feel better....  Thanks for listening.

Jim,

CAFC case after case has shown that boilerplate language can save even the most poorly written patent.  Get out from under the rock you are hiding beneath!


Just kidding.

pet peeve is shared.

[Isaac]

Why do some practitioners insist on starting the most substantive (and potentially interesting) part of a patent with lengthy boilerplate? 

I beg to differ.  I've never noticed boilerplate before the title of patent.  I know the title is the best part of a patent, because that's the part that inspires hundreds of posts on slashdot.

[JimIvey]

FWIW, my work has been slashdotted.  Yes, it had all you might imagine: title is obvious, background section didn't say anything new, a clause in the claims was way overly broad, etc.

I'm sure more "said"s, "plurality"s, "heretofore"s, and careful definitions of "and", "or", "a/an", and "the" and incorporating the Library of Congress by reference would have fixed all that.

Thanks.

[Isaac]

FWIW, my work has been slashdotted.  Yes, it had all you might imagine: title is obvious, background section didn't say anything new, a clause in the claims was way overly broad, etc.

Awesome

I knew you were good, but I did not understand that you were a celebrity!  Hopefully your clients appreciated the attention...

[JimIvey]

I knew you were good, but I did not understand that you were a celebrity!  Hopefully your clients appreciated the attention...

Thanks.  I wish that the reason was that my work was so incredibly broad yet defensible that raised the ire of Internet folks.  However, it was that a client was suing someone on it.

Wanna be slashdotted?  Have a client that sues on your patents.

One time, I did feel like a celebrity.  I mentioned to a prospective new client that I managed the patent portfolio of Tumbleweed Communications for a while.  "Tumbleweed?  Weren't they going around suing everyone with these incredibly broad claims?"  "Yeah, those were my claims."

If you work long enough in a small community like this, people hear of you sooner or later.

Regards.