STTR Phase I: Assisted Invention Disclosure Tool

This STTR Phase I proposal is for the development of a web-based software tool that dramatically reduces the time and cost of drafting a U.S. patent application. Inventors and small companies having no background in patent law and patent-application drafting strategies struggle with properly describing their inventions. Overcoming this lack of understanding on the part of the inventor requires a great deal of one-on-one educational training with a patent professional in order to draft a quality patent application. However, engaging a patent professional is costly and time consuming. This proposal outlines a research and development strategy to create and integrate effective game-based education tools into an existing assisted invention disclosure prototype. Through game-based learning, inventors acquire a basic understanding of patent law and patent application drafting strategies, while simultaneously disclosing details of their invention. The invention disclosure prototype organizes and structures the data provided, then transforms the data into narrative sentences that are then formatted according to the rules of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The proposed tool will reduce barriers to obtaining patent protection, allow greater participation in the patent system and lead to increased innovation and commercialization beneficial to the overall U.S. economy. This STTR Phase I proposal is to develop a game-based educational module to augment an existing assisted invention disclosure tool. For the game-based learning module of this proposal, a curriculum covering fundamental patent law and patent drafting strategy will be created to educate inventors. From this curriculum, a gamified tutorial will engage the inventors throughout the disclosure process. The proposed curriculum will educate inventors about fundamental patent rules and teach regulations and concepts related to strategic application drafting. While inventors are interacting with the gamified tutorial, the assisted invention disclosure tool simultaneously extracts invention details or elements directly from the inventor. The existing prototype processes data using a rules engine into narrative sentences. The proposal also refines the existing data structure of the assisted invention disclosure tool by adding a common language component. An ontology will also be created to identify patent specific preparation requirements for a variety of technical arts in order to scale the tool for use among all U.S. Patent and Trademark classes. This proposal empowers inventors with the knowledge and tools to draft U.S. patent applications which will fuel increased innovation and commercialization.