Working as a Patent Agent

Summary

I have authored and prosecuted over 100 patent applications, often managing 10 projects at once. These patent applications involved technologies that utilized novel software and machine learning strategies.

When authoring patent applications, I worked with inventors to ensure a broad, yet accurate description of the invention. Additionally, I crafted engaging visual representations to illustrate the dynamics between the components of the invention.

When prosecuting patent applications, I investigated the "prior art" - documents filed or posted before the date of the subject patent application filing - and determined various strategies and arguments to prove the novelty of the subject patent application. Then, I advocated for patent application allowance by interviewing patent examiners based on those strategies and arguments.

I have experience working with a variety of technologies, including image search, attention transformer models, autoregressive models, marketplace optimization, deep learning models, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), natural language processing, graph databases, and augmented and virtual reality.

Spotlight

After reviewing hundreds of patents, I noticed an industry-wide pattern of preference for the “default male.” This pattern is evident in the heavy use of “he/his” as a singular pronoun and user populations appearing as a group of white men. The cause of this pattern is the fact that the vast majority of patents are written by male patent attorneys and agents for male inventors.

The patent applications to which I was assigned were within my control to change. One significant change I made was altering the representation of a “default user” in my patent application drawings. None of the libraries of templates for drawings available to me included a woman or non-white person, and the “user population” graphics showed only white male stick figures. Therefore, I created my own library of simple stick-figure graphics representing users who were representative of the population the invention would serve, not just of the people who wrote the patent applications.

Fig. 1 Patents Website

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