What I Learned From This Class

Hello Everyone,

I am sad that this class is over but I am glad that I will be taking so much knowledge with me into the future about how patents work and how to file and read through one on my own. First, I thought it was interesting how we started off the semester learning about the top 10 inventions ever and how each person had their own ideas about what they thought were the coolest top 10 inventions as opposed to what Dr. Lavian thought were the top 10. Then, we dove into what makes up a patent and what it takes to get one. Learning about obviousness was pretty interesting to me because I was curious about how dumb a patent could be and still get patented but this curiosity was quenched with the silly patent research homework assignment. Next up, I learned a lot about prior art and what it means to be novel. Prior art is all the prior patents and public documentation regarding the patent so this could be books, designs in textbooks, previous patents, or anything really. If it has already been done before it is not patentable. You can patent on improvements though which was good to know that if someone patented a chair then you couldn't patent the chair minus a leg but you could patent the chair with a new addition that has never been thought of before and is actually novel. Overall, what I will take from this class is how to file a patent, how to read through a patent and find infringement, and finally how to work with patents in my future career. This class was so helpful in creating this foundation and for creating an interest me in patents in general. I know so much more than I did before this class and was initially intimidated by the idea of patents and learning about their intricacies but now that I know, I feel like I can go out get a team and file something useful. Thank you to our Professor Tal Lavian for all the work he put in creating this class and the stimulating homework assignments.