A patent clerk or patent examiner is an employee, usually a civil servant, working within a patent office. Major employers of patent clerks are the European Patent Office, the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Japan Patent Office. In the United States those who examine patent applications are called "patent examiners." Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... A civil servant or public servant is a civilian career public sector employee working for a government department or agency. ... A patent office is a governmental or intergovernmental organisation which controls the issue of patents. ... The European Patent Organisation (EPO or EPOrg in order to distinguish it from the European Patent Office, which is the main organ of the organisation) is a public international organisation set up by the European Patent Convention. ... The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO or USPTO) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that provides patent and trademark protection to inventors and businesses for their inventions and corporate and product identification. ... Japan Patent Office (JPO) is a Japanese governmental agency that takes charge of industrial property right affairs, under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. ...

Overview

Patent clerk work include to examining patent applications as to whether they deserve a patent. The work of patent clerks usually includes searching patent and scientific literature databases for prior art, and substantively examining patent applications, that is examining whether the claimed invention meets the patentability requirements such as novelty, "inventive step" or "non-obviousness", "industrial application" (or "utility") and sufficiency of disclosure. A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for the invention described and claimed by that application. ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive, and... Scientific literature is the totality of publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the sciences and social sciences. ... A database is an organized collection of data. ... In most patent laws, prior art or state of the art is all information that has been disclosed to the public in any form before a given date. ... Patent claims define the extent of the protection conferred by a patent, in technical terms. ... Novelty is a patentability test, according to which an invention is not patentable if it was already known before the date of filing, or before the date of priority if a priority is claimed, of the patent application. ... The inventive step and non-obviousness reflect a same general patentability requirement present in most patent laws, according to which an invention should be sufficiently inventive, i. ... In patent law, industrial applicability or industrial application is a patentability requirement according to which a patent can only be granted for an invention which is susceptible of industrial application, i. ... Sufficiency of disclosure refers to the legal requirement that the description of an invention in a patent contain specific information about the invention. ...

United States

A qualified Examiner with the USPTO is a United States citizen and holds at a minimum a Bachelor degree in one of the physical sciences, life sciences, engineering disciplines, or in computer science. Advanced academic degrees and relevant work experience in the technical area are not uncommon either. // Possession of Citizenship U.S. citizens have the right to participate in the political system of the United States (with reservations for prisoners, ex-prisoners, and naturalized persons), are represented and protected abroad by the United States (through U.S. embassies and consulates), and are allowed to reside in the... A bachelors degree is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course that generally lasts three or four years. ... Physical science is an encompassing term for the branches of natural science, and science (generally), that study non-living systems, in contrast to the biological sciences. ... Biology studies the variety of life (clockwise from top-left) E. coli, tree fern, gazelle, Goliath beetle Biology is the science of life (from the Greek words bios = life and logos = word). ... Bold text Engineering is the application of scientific and technical knowledge to solve human problems. ...   Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. ... A degree is any of a wide range of status levels conferred by institutions of higher education, such as universities, normally as the result of successfully completing a program of study. ...

Notable patent clerks

• Genrich Altshuller
• Clara Barton
• Albert Einstein, who worked for a couple of years at the Swiss Patent Office
• Thomas P. Jones, engineer and publisher
• Richard Bissell Prosser
• Johan Vaaler

Image:Altshuller Genrih. ... Famed American nurse Clara Barton, first president of the American Red Cross Clarissa Harlowe Barton (better known as Clara Barton) (December 25, 1821 –April 12, 1912) was a pioneer American teacher, nurse, and humanitarian. ... Albert Einstein, photographed by Yousuf Karsh in 1948. ... Thomas P. Jones was born in 1774. ... Richard Bissell Prosser (August 25, 1838 - March 18, 1918) was a patents examiner and a biographical writer. ... Johan Vaaler (March 15, 1866–1910) was a Norwegian inventor who was granted patents for a kind of paperclip in Germany in 1899 and in the United States in 1901. ...

See also

• Patent attorney

A patent attorney is an attorney who has the specialized qualifications necessary for representing clients in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice, such as filing an opposition. ...

References

• Portions of this article incorporates works of the U.S. Government. As per 17 U.S.C. § 105, materials created by the United States government are in the public domain.