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[Tony Kondaks]

Regarding the figures/illustrations that are included with patent applications:
Is there a standard set of symbols that are used (e.g. the ones for "licensor", "licensee", etc.)?
If so, does anyone know where on the web I can see them so I can download them?
If not, should I assume one just uses common sense in using whatever symbols make the most sense?

[Wiscagent]

A standard symbol for "licensor" is LICENSOR.
A standard symbol for "licensee" is LICENSEE.

I know I'm being a wise guy, but my point is to keep it simple.  Unless you really need to, avoid symbols, abbreviations, and other notations that will force the examiner, the judge, or the jury to go back and forth between the description and the claims to figure out what the whole thing means.

Keep in mind that if you use (for example) L/R for licensor, and L/E for licensee; some readers of the application will see L/R and read it as left/right.  Do you really want to get an office action rejecting your claim because left/right doesn't make sense in the context?

People have enough trouble understanding complex problems when everything is carefully spelled out - don't make it more difficult than it needs to be.

[JimIvey]

A number of patents use stick figures to represent human actors in the figures.  I usually don't draw human actors but describe their interaction -- e.g., client computer 102 allows a human user to access information hosted by server 106 through a wide area network 104, which is the Internet in this illustrative example."  No icon/symbol/picture of the "human user".

Regards.