{"id":3773,"date":"2024-06-10T08:24:16","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T13:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=3773"},"modified":"2024-06-10T08:24:16","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T13:24:16","slug":"5-star-background-1-star-patent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=3773","title":{"rendered":"5 Star Background, 1 Star Patent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As we have said several times, the Background in a patent application is <a href=\"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=1760\">trap for unwary<\/a>, and in general <a href=\"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=1198\">the less said the better<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>U.S. Patent No. 8,356,419 has an interesting take on the Background, relying on consumer reviews of the prior art:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"682\" height=\"671\" src=\"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3774\" style=\"width:518px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-1.png 682w, https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-1-300x295.png 300w, https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-1-305x300.png 305w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Whether in the applicant&#8217;s own words or in the adopted words of consumer reviews, criticisms of the prior art can have a limiting effect on claim scope, because why would the inventor want to claim something that he or she criticized or believe in adequate?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is unlikely that a Background section has ever worked to the benefit of a patent applicant, but there are multiple examples of where the Background has disadvantaged the applicant, whether through &#8220;admitted prior art&#8221; or limitation of the claims through criticism of the prior art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lesson remains, the less said, the better. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we have said several times, the Background in a patent application is trap for unwary, and in general the less said the better. U.S. Patent No. 8,356,419 has an interesting take on the Background, relying on consumer reviews of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=3773\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drafting-tips"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3775,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3773\/revisions\/3775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}