The Impact of the America Invents Act on Patent Applications Filed On or After March 16, 2013

On March 16, 2013, under the America Invents Act (AIA), the United States will transition from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file country. Patent applicants should consider their filing strategies now to position themselves well for the forthcoming changes.

What is the Impact of the New Law on Patent Applications?

Under the new law, the effective filing date, ¹ rather than the date of the invention, will be the critical date for applying prior art. Applicants will no longer be able to antedate a reference using their date of invention. Other provisions expand the scope of applicable prior art. First, the new law expands the prior art to include public sales and uses outside the U.S. Second, published U.S. patent applications are prior art as of their earliest priority date, even if the priority application was filed in a foreign country. ² Third, the new law places limitations on the one-year grace period. ³ The new law also contains a Post Grant Review proceeding applicable to patents on applications filed on or after March 16, 2013. In some cases, these new provisions may negatively impact the patentability of an invention. However, the new law also provides certain benefits, such as providing a defense against novelty rejections that are based on patents/applications that are commonly owned or subject to a joint defense agreement. ⁴

Will the Old or New Law Apply to a New Patent Application?

The following rules determine which law will be applied:

1. Old (pre-AIA) Law:
1. All claims in applications filed before March 16, 2013, will be governed by the old law.
2. All claims in applications filed on or after March 16, 2013, but claiming priority to an application filed before March 16, 2013, in which the priority application fully supports all of the claims, will be governed by the old law.
2. New (AIA) Law:
1. All claims in applications filed on or after March 16, 2013, with no claim of priority to an application filed before March 16, 2013, will be governed by the new law.
2. All claims in applications filed on or after March 16, 2013, which claim priority to an application filed before March 16, 2013, but where at least one claim is not entitled to the earlier priority date, will be governed by the new law. ^5,6

Should a New Application Be Filed Under the Old Law or New Law?

Whether a particular application would benefit more from the old law or the new law depends on the circumstances of each case. Furthermore, certain post-filing events, such as the type of prior art applied against the application, may be unpredictable. Given this uncertainty, the safest course of action may be to file two applications: one under the old law and one under the new law. ⁷

What Are Some Filing Strategies and Pitfalls?

Patent protection can be obtained under both the old and new law by filing one application (A) before March 16, 2013, and a second, continuation-in-part application (B) on or after March 16, 2013, in which (B) claims priority to (A) but which also contains at least one claim to subject matter that is new to (B) and not supported by (A). All of the claims in the (A) application would be governed by the old law while all of the claims in the (B) application would be governed by the new law.

For new U.S. applications that will contain new subject matter in the specification and claims – such as a non-provisional application claiming the benefit of a provisional application or a revised national stage application – the patentee should consider filing these applications before March 16, 2013, to obtain the benefits of the old law.

For new U.S. applications to be filed on or after March 16, 2013, claiming priority to a pre-March 16 application, if the old law is desired, then the patentee should be careful not to introduce a claim at any time during the prosecution of the new application that is not entitled to the benefit of the priority application. Otherwise, the new application will be automatically and irreversibly converted to an application governed by the new law.

Conclusion

In view of the imminent law change, we encourage you to consider whether it would be in your best interest to file any applications before March 16, 2013, even if it is earlier than scheduled, so as to benefit from the old law. We also encourage you to consider whether in certain circumstances you should also file a second application containing new subject matter on or after March 16, 2013, so as to be governed under the new law.

Please contact us if you would like more information about the new law or if we can advise you on a specific matter.

1 Under the AIA, the “effective filing date” is the earliest priority date to which a particular claim is entitled. The effective filing date can be based on a priority application filed outside the U.S.
 

2 Pre-AIA, such publications are prior art as of their earliest U.S. filing date.

3 For example, under the AIA, if the inventor is the first to publicly disclose the invention, then the inventor has a one-year grace period to file an application; however, if a third party publicly discloses the invention before the inventor publicly discloses the invention or files a patent application, then the third party disclosure is prior art.

4 Under the old law, common ownership or a joint defense agreement was a defense only to obviousness. Under the AIA, the defense covers both obviousness and anticipation. In addition, the common ownership/joint defense agreement provisions under the new law are based on the time of filing the application, rather than the time of the invention.

5 There is an important exception for applications falling in this category: the prior art and interference provisions of 35 U.S.C. §§102(g), 135 and 291 of the pre-AIA law apply to all claims in an application for which at least one claim has an effective filing date before March 16, 2013.

6 Under category (II)(b), an application that would otherwise be governed by the old law is automatically “converted” to one in which all the pending claims are governed by the new law by the addition – at any time during prosecution – of at least one claim that does not find support in a pre-March 16, 2013, priority date application. That is, once converted, all of the claims, including those that are supported in the pre-March 16, 2013, priority application, and all claims in subsequent applications that claim priority to that “converted” application, are irreversibly governed by the new law.

7 A patentee might even consider filing three applications: (I)(a) or (I)(b); (II)(a); and (II)(b). As noted in footnote 5, an application filed under category (II)(b) will be subject to the new law except for 102(g) prior art and interference provisions; for these provisions, the date of invention is important.

Nokia scores another legal win against HTC in Germany

One of the multiple concurrent lawsuits against HTC by Nokia, where Nokia has proudly announced another favorable verdict in Germany, this time from the Mannheim Regional Court. The lawsuit revolves yet another Nokia patent that HTC has now been ruled to have infringed regarding how devices adapt to different network versions.

Nokia has filed several patent-related lawsuits against HTC in several places all over the world, including in the US, the UK, and Germany. It has already won several of these lawsuits, particularly in the UK, which led to the leak of certain details about HTC's next flagship, and at least two cases in Germany over different patents.

The two previous patents filed against HTC in Germany revolved around peer-to-peer sharing via NFC or Bluetooth as well as a patent on what happens when a smartphone is connected to a computer via USB. This latest case, on the other hand, is about how a mobile device adapts its revision level based on a network's own revision level. This patent basically allows a new device to be backwards compatible with older networks.

It is interesting to note that this patent can be considered crucial to implementing technical standards. However, it does not fall under Nokia's standards-essential patents or SEP. HTC has already licensed Nokia's SEPs but, since this does not fall under that category, it is still liable to lawsuit. Accordingly, the court has ordered HTC to pay for damages though the exact amount will still be determined in a different trial.

Nokia and HTC has been waging a patent war across the western part of the globe, but Nokia has practically only targeted HTC's Android devices. It remains to be seen whether these rather useful patents that Nokia have won over HTC can also be used later against other Android supporters.

A Guide to the CPC Search Tool on Espacenet

We’ve been following the development and roll-out of the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) over the past year, from the initial release of the CPC scheme to a guide describing how major patent search systems will integrate the CPC into their search features. The CPC has already replaced ECLA as of January 1, 2013, and the Espacenet search system has been updated to reflect these changes. The CPC replaces ECLA in the classification section under the Advanced search form on Espacenet, and the CPC search tool is now available on Espacenet under the “Classification search” option.  The tool allows users to keyword search or browse through the CPC hierarchy, view code definitions, notes, and warnings, and select codes to add to the Advanced search form or use to search directly for patent records.
Continue reading for a visual guide to every feature within the CPC search tool on Espacenet!

From the Espacenet homepage, users can access the CPC search tool by selecting the “Classification search” option in the vertical menu on the left side of the page (below the “Smart search” and “Advanced search” options).  Once the user opens the CPC search tool, a number of quick help links and a clipboard displaying all selected classifications will be displayed below the search menu, as shown in the screenshot below.

Access the CPC search tool by selecting the “Classification search” option.

To the right of the search menu, the Cooperative Patent Classification hierarchy is displayed in a collapsed format, with a keyword search form, links to access all main sections of the CPC, and a variety of buttons shown above the hierarchy display.  Keywords (up to 10 keywords in English) can be entered in the search form, and all relevant classifications related to a keyword will be displayed (in a collapsed format) below the search form. The search form accepts Boolean operators and wildcards like *, ?, and #.  Up to five stars will be displayed beside a relevant classification after a keyword search, and more relevant classifications (with more stars) will appear at the top of the list.  The classifications can be expanded to view all narrower codes by selecting the small arrow to the left of the classification symbol and definition.
A user may also enter a classification symbol within the search form, although only one symbol can be entered at a time. After entering a classification symbol in the search form, the symbol will appear below the search form at its location in the classification hierarchy.  All narrower classification codes below the symbol will be automatically expanded.
Select any of the section links (A-Y) beside the keyword search form to view a collapsed list of all main classification codes in that section, and further expand the hierarchy of the section by selecting a main code to view narrower codes.

A collapsed version of the CPC hierarchy, with keyword/symbol search and browsing options.

The buttons displayed below the search form can be used to alter the display of the CPC classifications and hierarchy.  Mouse over each button to view a brief description of its purpose.  The following buttons are available for the CPC search tool:

• Flip symbols (left or right) – Select the left or right button to switch the classification symbols (and check boxes) to the left or right side of the table.  During testing, the check boxes didn’t appear to work properly when the symbols were flipped to the right side of the table.

Use these buttons to flip the symbols to the left or sight side of the hierarchy table.

• Toggle tree – Select to view the hierarchy in dot format (more dots indicates a narrower class) or tree format (lines indicate the parent-child relationships between classes).

These buttons can be used to view the hierarchy in dot format (left) or tree format (right).

• Toggle notes and warnings always visible – Select this button to display the full text of all notes (blue text) and notes (orange text).  Even if this button is turned off, small icons beside the classification will indicate the presence of a note/warning and can be selected to expand the note/warning text. Additional icons beside a classification, such as a small “S” icon displayed in the screenshot below, currently only open a new browser tab displaying an error message.

Select this button to hide notes and warnings (top) or make notes and warning always visible (bottom).

• Toggle scheme colors (IPC vs CPC) – Selecting this button will highlight all new CPC text in green, while the original IPC text remains un-highlighted.

Use this button to view original IPC definition text and new CPC definition text (highlighted in green).

• Toggle dates – View or hide the revision date beside a classification.

Use this button to hide revision dates (top) or display revision dates (bottom).

• Toggle references – Use this button to expand or hide the additional reference text for a classification. Even when this button is turned off, the availability of reference text is indicated by the (…) icon, which can be selected to expand the reference text for that classification.

Use this button to hide reference text (top) or display the full reference text (bottom).

• Toggle 2000-series – View or hide the CPC 2000 indexing area. According to the Espacenet homepage, “this indexing area largely stems from the EPO’s former ICO codes and controlled keywords (KWs).”

Display the CPC 2000 indexing area.

After locating a relevant classification symbol within the hierarchy and customizing the display using the buttons described above, the user can add the relevant classifications to the “Selected classifications” clipboard by clicking the check box beside a classification.  Selecting a classification check box will automatically select the check boxes of all narrower classifications, and the code listed on the clipboard will include the label “/low” to indicate the inclusion of all narrower classifications.

Select a check box beside a code to add that classification and all child classifications to the clipboard.

The user can select the code on the clipboard and switch the label from “/low” to “/exact”, in order to only include the specific classification code within any searches conducted from the clipboard, without the inclusion of narrower classifications.

Switch the selected classification from “low” (all child classifications included) to “exact” (only the exact selected code).

Selecting the “/exact” label will automatically de-select all narrower classifications in the hierarchy table.

An exact search of a classification will only search the selected code, excluding all child classifications.

After selecting all relevant codes to add to the clipboard, the user can then select to search within the Worldwide database on Espacenet for records containing  all selected classifications by choosing the “Find patents” option on the clipboard.  The user will automatically be taken to the search result list.

Choose “Find patents” to search for records listing the codes within the Worldwide database patent collection, and go directly to patent search results.

The user can also select the “Copy to search form” option on the clipboard to enter all selected classifications into the CPC section of the Advanced search form.  This option allows the user to add additional terms to the query within the Advanced search form before conducting the search with the selected CPC codes.

Choose “Copy to search form” to enter the selected codes in the Advanced search form.

Conclusion
The new CPC search tool improves upon the old ECLA search tool by adding a number of useful display features, including the option to view the hierarchy in tree or dot format and the option to highlight the new CPC text. Users can also select whether they want to include all narrower classifications when copying relevant codes to the clipboard.  Some bugs are still visible in this new tool, such as the icons that currently only open tabs containing error messages and the inability to select check boxes when the classification symbols are flipped to the right side of the table.  Despite these small issues, this tool is still an important new feature on Espacenet that will come in handy for professional patent searchers using the CPC during prior art searches.

6 Recent STN Updates, and a New STN Platform!

the newest features and coverage available on the STN search platform. The STN platform allows professional patent searchers to hunt for a wide range of relevant prior art by searching through valuable patent and non-patent literature (NPL) databases using a flexible command-line interface. Back in October of 2012, we described the expanded numeric property search feature available on 14 patent and NPL databases on STN. Throughout the remainder of 2012, STN had a number of additional coverage and feature updates, ranging from the addition of a Japanese patent full-text database to the implementation of the new Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) within the portal. STN also recently announced the beta release of the first version of a new STN platform, which combines command-line searching and an intuitive user interface.
After the jump, learn about six of the most recent major updates to the coverage and features on the STN platform, and read about the release of the new version of STN!

6 Recent Updates to STN
All major recent updates to the STN platform can be found on the Intellogist System Report for STN, and the following updates represent some of the major improvements to the system during November and December 2012:

• According to the November Issue of STNews:
  

  In March 2012, CAS announced that the MARPAT database would be enhanced with English-, German- and Japanese-language patents from 1987. The addition of English- and German-language patents for 1987 is now complete. Processing of English- and German-language patents from 1985 and 1986 and Japanese-language patents from 1987 is continuing. We are pleased to report that Markush information from over 2,600 patent publications has been added to date.

• According to the November Issue of STNews:
  

  STN now includes JPFULL, the full-text Japanese database of patent applications and patent specifications. Currently JPFULL covers application years 2006 onwards. Historical data will continue to load (one year per week in reverse chronological order) until all records back to 1964 have been incorporated. Once completed, the database will contain approximately 16 million records.

• According to STN International:
  

  From week 47/2012 onwards, CPC data are available for new and updated records of the INPADOC databases. Users have full access to all details of the CPC data including CPC codes and attributes. A CPC thesaurus feature supports classification searching, helping users to identify relevant codes and searching the hierarchy of the codes.
  For details and search examples see the INPADOC News 2012/11.

• According to Information Today:
  

  FIZ Karlsruhe announced that the complete ReaxysFile is now available on STN. ReaxysFile now contains the full content from Reaxys, a leading source for chemical substance and reaction data produced by Elsevier. [...] Information on several million substances has been added, including inorganic substances and substances derived from patents, bringing the database to the same content level as in Reaxys.

• According to the December 2012 Issue of STNewsline, users can now streamline SDI set up with the new STN command, SDI STANDARD, effective December 9, 2012. The SDI STANDARD command:
  • Increases efficiency by reducing the number of questions to set up an SDI
  • Works with single file and multifile SDIs, including SDI packages
  • Accounts for SDI set-up best practices
  • Maintains flexibility with ability to customize settings using SDI EDIT
  • Reduces STN MAIL charges by changing the default Notifications setting to NO (do not send notifications) from YES
• According to the CAS website:
  

  In December, CAS began enhancing its reaction coverage in SciFinder and on STN’s CASREACT® database with the addition of reactions from nearly 900 dissertations published in the Selected Organic Reaction Database (SORD) between 1961-2009.

New STN Platform
The CAS website issued a press release on December 13, 2012 that describes the first version of a new STN platform:

The STN partners, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) and FIZ Karlsruhe, are pleased to announce that Version One of the new STN platform is now available in beta for fixed fee customers. This is the first major milestone in a multi-year initiative to create the next generation of STN, the choice of patent experts.
The focus of this first version has been on developing the core search and retrieval system for new STN. This release combines the complete CAS REGISTRY and Chemical Abstracts content along with Thomson Reuters’ Derwent World Patents Index®.[...]
A new approach for STN is to allow organization of work in projects for easy management of search queries and results. New technologies are designed to process broad and complex searches with industry-leading performance. This is vital for patent searchers to keep pace with the continued increase of disclosed research and patent information from around the world.
The new workflow integrates the power of command line with an intuitive user interaction that enables professionals to leverage their expertise and realize instantaneous results. For the first time, text and structures can be combined in a single query to simplify searching for chemical information.
The STN Partners will incorporate additional content and functionality in the new architecture with ongoing versions. Full text patent content will be added throughout 2013. [...] The current STN system, including STN Express® and the other STN products will continue to be available and fully supported throughout the development of the new platform.

Conclusion
The STN platform is a crucial tool for professional patent searchers, since it allows users to search a wide range of both patent and NPL databases with the ability to craft complex queries using command-line syntax. The STN platform regularly adds new coverage to existing databases, such as the additional content recently added to MARPAT, CASREACT, and ReaxysFile. The system also occasionally adds new patent full-text databases, like the new JPFULL file that contain full-text Japanese patent records. Besides the new coverage added and recent implementation of the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) within the portal, CAS and FIZ-Karlsruhe are also regularly improving the user’s search experience on STN by adding new search and display features (like the new SDI command) and even creating a completely new version of the platform with a streamlined user interface. The roll-out of the new STN platform will be a slow and ongoing process, but it’s exciting to witness the release of a working version of the new platform that includes key prior art content like CAS REGISTRY and DWPI. Hopefully, the new version of the platform will soon be available to all STN users and include expanded coverage.

Free Family, Citation, and Legal Status Searches for Chinese Patent Documents on PSS of SIPO

By comparing the free patent search options available for Chinese patent documents, and one option was the free English patent search interface created by SIPO. SIPO also provides another free patent search tool called the Patent Search and Service System (PSS), which went online for public testing in April 2011 and currently includes both English and Chinese search options.  According to an EPO press release, the PSS includes “a number of advanced search and retrieval possibilities, such as citation and family searches, cross-lingual retrieval, legal status information, full text data and machine translation.”  The tool allows users to access CN data on patents, utility models, and designs from 1985 onwards, and the system is updated monthly. Worldwide patent document data covering 97 countries (most likely INPADOC data) also appears to be searchable under the structured search form. The tool is free, but registration is necessary to access many of the more advanced tools of the system, such as viewing the Search History tab and downloading full PDF documents.  Unfortunately, registration proved to be a bit problematic for an English-language user, and some features were still not accessible even after registering for the portal.
Read on to learn about the advanced search tools accessible for Chinese and worldwide patent documents on PSS, and also learn about the registration and access problems that you may encounter when using this system.
Registration
From the English-language home page of PSS (the basic search form), users can register for an account by selecting the “Regist” button in the top right corner of the screen, beside the “Login” button.  The user is then prompted to enter user name, password, email, verification code, name, additional optional personal information, and indicate that they have read the “Agreement of System Application.” I initially had some trouble registering for an account on the portal, since the name field would not accept an English-language name. I ended up using Chinese characters to enter in the name field, and the registration was accepted.
After signing in to the portal, I am still unable to access the “Batch” and “Download” tabs (described below), and a message appears on these tabs stating “Sorry, you don’t have permission to access this menu.”  After registration, I am able to access the “Search History” tab, “File” tab, and I can download a full TIFF version of Chinese patent documents.

Download a TIFF file containing the full CN document image after registering for an account on PSS.

Search Tools
The English-language version of the platform has seven tabs available, including:

• Basic Search – Select one of the options to search by keyword (SE option searches title, abstracts, rights claim, and classification number simultaneously), application number, publication number, applicant/assignee, inventor name, or document title. After selecting the field search option, enter the query in the search form. Boolean operators AND/OR/NOT and quotations to indicate phrase searches are accepted in the search form. The user can mouse over the search form to view instructions on correct query formation for each selected field search option.

Basic search form on PSS.

• Structured Search – Under this tab, users have the option to search by “Worldwide patent documents,” “CN patent documents,” or “Worldwide patent documents other than CN.” Selecting only the CN collection allows the user to search through additional fields, like “Brief description of design model” and “Zip code of the applicant.” After selecting the collection to be searched, the user can construct a query through either a selection of fielded text boxes or through a command-line interface at the bottom of the form. The command line accepts nested queries, field operators, Boolean operators, parentheses, and proximity operators. The users can scroll over the text box of the search fields to view any available help information about correctly formatting queries.

Structured search form (for the CN document collection) on PSS.

• Search History – View previous searches conducted through the portal. This tool is for registered users only.
• File – This section possibly allows the user to access file history information for a given CN document. This tool is for registered users only.
• Useful Tools – This section provides users with a number of additional search features:
  • IPC – Simultaneously locate Chinese and English-language definitions for an IPC classification.
  • Family – Conduct a family search based on a given publication number.
  • Citation – Conduct a citation search based on a publication or application number.
  • Legal Status – Conduct a legal status search based on a publication or application number.
  • Applicant/Patentees Alias – Find alternate versions of the applicant/assignee name.
  • Country Code – View the correct country code and organization name for each national or regional organization.
  • Bilingual Dictionary – Look up terms from Chinese to English or English to Chinese.
  • Relevant Classification – Enter an IPC code and find the closest corresponding code in ECLA, USPC, F-Index, or F-Term.
  • Relevant Term – Enter a basic terms and retrieve synonyms.

IPC concordance tool on PSS under the “Useful Tools” section.

• Batch – This section possibly refers to batch downloads of CN documents. This section is only available for registered users.
• Download- This section possibly refers to PDF downloads of CN documents. The Download section is only available for registered users.

Viewing Results
After conducting a search, users can view basic bibliographic data in a results list (10 results per page). Users can select or de-select all results per page and browse the full records or add the results to their list of favorites (only 10 documents can be included in the favorites list at one time). The results list page includes both the search history and favorites list on the right side of the hit list.

Basic bibliographic data and links to full record, family, legal status, etc. provided in search results.

Each result in the hit list includes (when available):

• Option to view or hide basic bibliographic fields (AN, AD, PN, PD, TI, etc.).
• Details – Full record, including abstract with English translation and representative image. Users can view the full text image and translate the full document text from English to Chinese or Chinese to English. The full record view for US and EP documents also includes examination result browsing options. Registered users can also download full-text TIFF files of selected documents from the full-record view.

Full record view for a CN document, with option to translate full-text from Chinese to English.

• Family – View a table of related family members for a patent document.
• Citation – View a list of patent citation documents, non-patent citation documents, and cited documents.

Citation data for a CN document.

• Comparative Documents – View lists of relevant patent documents and relevant non-patent documents.
• Legal Status – View legal status data for the document.
• Applicant Information- View information on the applicant/assignee (such as address/zip code/country).

 Help Options
For English-language users, the main help material is accessible through the tooltips that appear when the user scrolls over various search forms. A detailed Chinese-language help file is available here. English users can also access the most recent user guide from the EPO about the PSS system at the “Searching in databases – China” section of the EPO website. As of December 2012, the most recent user guide from the EPO on registering and document retrieval through PSS is available here.
Conclusion
Despite the registration problems and access limitations for some sections of PSS, the system still offers flexible search tools and excellent viewing/document download features for CN documents. The legal status, citation, and family search options for CN documents on an English-language interface are unique features for a free online search portal.  The “Useful Tools” section of the portal also includes some very helpful tools for general query formation, such as a bilingual dictionary, applicant alias look-up, a synonym tool, and even an IPC-to-USPC/ECLA/F-Index/F-Term concordance tool.  Professional patent searchers often need to search for CN prior art, and SIPO’s PSS will be a great place to start scoping out a relevant collection of CN patent documents.

Patents for Easy Cooking-- a FUNNY ONE BUT INTERESTING

Some people enjoy spending hours lovingly preparing their meals (whether that meal involves gourmet turkey stuffing or home-style barbecue), and there is nothing wrong with that. I’m just the type of person who would rather toss something in the microwave for two minutes and eat it on the go, rather than spending half the morning preparing Lemon-Ricotta Poppy Seed Pancakes and a Spanish Omelet with Romesco Sauce.  If you’re a person who feels that boiling a pot of water is about as far as you’re willing to travel into the culinary world, then you have many inventors to whom you should silently thank for letting us live in a culture of convenient food products.  From the toaster pastry to the frozen TV-dinner, there are foods for any time of day that only take moments to prepare.
Read on for a quick review of some of the quintessential food-related patents (found on Google Patents) that have simplified the cooking process!

1. US 6099875 – Individual serving size cereal package

For those of us too lazy to pour cereal and milk into a bowl.

All you need to do is add water to this mixture of “dry cereal pieces” and “dry milk product, such as dry powdered milk or milk substitute, and other additives” to create a “food product that is nutritional and convenient to eat.” It doesn’t get much faster or easier than that.
2. US D468889 – Segmented cooked dough food product

Breakfast of champions.

This design patent for a segmented toaster pastry allows you to share the deliciousness with others.  Just because you don’t cook doesn’t mean you can’t show off your culinary expertise to your friends.  Just pop this pastry in the toaster for 60 seconds, divide into segments, and earn the respect of your peers as a toaster pastry master.
3. US 5780082 – Process for making a food product of the pizza type, in the shape of a Pocket

The staple food for all middle school students.

Here is a food item that is world-renown for the quick and simple preparation process and as a filling, hearty meal that will scald your mouth with molten cheese goo.
4. US 4267199 – Noodle soup mix

The staple food for all college students.

The best trait of this noodle mix patent is its versatility.  You can take the 10 minutes to boil a pot of water and actually make the soup, or you can just sprinkle on the seasoning and eat the noodle bar as a crunchy snack.
5. US D302068 -TV dinner tray

The cheapest way to have dinner and a show.

The frozen TV dinner gives aspiring chefs the best of both worlds: a nearly infinite variety of choices for a home-cooked meal, and the speedy cooking time that only comes from microwavable food. The presentation may not be on par with a five-star restaurant, but the price is certainly better.  You can also watch Seinfeld while dining.