Patent Office Drawing Rules.
Each applicant for a patent is required by law to furnish a drawing of his invention whenever the nature of the case admits of it. The drawing must be signed by the inventor or the name of the inventor may be signed on the drawing by his attorney-in-fact, and in either case must be attested by two witnesses. The drawing must show every feature of the invention covered by the claims.
When the invention consists of an improvement on an old machine, the drawing must exhibit, in one or more views, the invention proper, disconnected from the old structure, and also, in another view, so much only of the old structure as will clearly show the connection of the invention with the old machine.
Several editions of the patent-drawings are printed, the smallest of which is about 3 × 43⁄4inches, so that the drawing must be so made that it will stand a reduction of about one-fourth. This work is done by the photo-lithographic process, and therefore the character of theoriginal drawing must be brought as nearly as possible to a uniform standard of excellence suited to the requirements of the process.
Note.—These rules will be found most useful to many readers of this work—hence their introduction at this point. Nearly 50,000 patents are “applied for” in the United States every year.
Note.—These rules will be found most useful to many readers of this work—hence their introduction at this point. Nearly 50,000 patents are “applied for” in the United States every year.
The following rules are given by the Patent Office for guidance:
1. Drawings must be made upon pure white paper of a thickness corresponding to three-sheet Bristol board. The surface of the paper must be calendered and smooth. India ink alone must be used, so as to secure perfectly black and solid lines.
2. The size of a sheet on which a drawing is made must be exactly 10 × 15 inches. One inch from its edges a single marginal line is to be drawn, leaving the “sight” precisely 8 × 13 inches. Within this margin all work and signatures must be included. One of the shorter sides of the sheet is regarded as its top, and measuring downwardly from the marginal line, a space of not less than 11⁄4inches is to be left blank for the heading of title, name, number and date.
3. All drawings must be made with the pen only. Every line and letter, signature included, must be absolutely black. This direction applies to all lines, however fine, to shading, and to lines representing cut surfaces in sectional views. All lines must be clean, sharp, and solid, and they must not be too fine or crowded. Surface shading, when used, should be open. Sectional shading should be made by oblique parallel lines about1⁄20of an inch apart. Solid black should not be used for sectional or surface shading.
4. Drawing must be made of the fewest lines possible, consistent with cleanness. The plane upon which a sectional view is taken should be indicated by a broken or dotted line. Heavy lines on the shade side of objects should be used, except where they tend to thicken the work and obscure letters of reference. The light is always supposed to come from the upper left hand corner at an angle of 45 degrees.
5. The scale to which a drawing is made should be large enough to show the mechanism without crowding. The number of sheets used must never be more than is absolutely necessary.
InventionFig. 292.
Fig. 292.
6. The different views should be consecutively numbered. Letters and figures of reference must be carefully formed. They should, if possible, measure at least one-eighth of an inch in height.
If the same part of an invention appears in more than one view of the drawing it must always be represented by the same character.
7. The signature of the inventor is to be placed in the lower right-hand corner of each sheet, and those of the witnesses at the lower left-hand corner.
The title should be written with pencil on the back of the sheet.
Drawings should be rolled for transmission, never folded.
Onpage 235,fig. 292exhibits a reproduction of a patent office drawing, used in connection with specification papers in an application for a United States patent.
The rules for patent drawings in England are practically the same as in the United States; the paper sizes are, however, different. They must be on sheets of one of the two following sizes (the smaller being preferable), 13 inches at the sides by 8 inches at the top and bottom, or 13 inches at the sides by 16 inches at the top and bottom, including margin, which must be one-half an inch wide.
If there are more figures than can be shown on one of the smaller-sized sheets, two or more of these sheets should be used in preference to employing the large size. When an exceptionally large drawing is required, it should be “continued” on subsequent sheets. There is no limit to the number of sheets that may be sent in.
PRACTICAL POINTS
Practice figureFig. 293. Seepage 244.
Fig. 293. Seepage 244.