Descriptive Geometry in Patent Illustration

by Legal Advantage

In the best practices of both utility patent illustration and design patent illustration, there's an approach which is often very useful, but which is also often overlooked. When an inventor provides only the vaguest indication of a complex shape needed for a patent drawing, it falls to the illustrator to step up and "flesh out" the concept for the inventor and the IP professional.

Taking a 30-second sketch on a napkin through a reasoned process to create a formalized, perfect, geometric form can require the application of pure Euclidean reasoning and an instinctive use of spatial perception.

The best patent illustrators will not guess at where the claimed features go; they will reason it out carefully and logically, like Archimedes of Syracuse drawing his figures in the sand.

This relieves the inventor and the IP agent or lawyer of the burden to do any more than that simple napkin sketch. A real time saver and, as we all know, time saved is money saved. In today's economy, every little saving helps.

Another approach is to use 3D software to to generate a 3D model. This method allows the patent illustrator to extract accurate 2D images from any viewpoint. We will highlight this approach in a future.

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