Writing Successful Technical Disclosures
There are a number of key issues with which disclosure writers should be familiar. Technical disclosures as a publication vehicle have several unique characteristics that you can leverage. In addition, the various purposes for and methods of use of technical disclosures can alter the content in the disclosure or the way disclosures are written.
Flexible, controllable technical disclosures:
Anonymity - Published technical disclosures have several unique advantages relative to other publications. For example, unlike conventional publications, disclosures can be published anonymously, allowing an author to safely disclose information that might otherwise be useful to a competitor's intelligence function or that could be offensive to a business partner.
Speed - Another advantage of the published technical disclosure is that it can be published extremely rapidly (relative to peer review publications). In fact, technical disclosures can be published in minutes, as opposed to weeks or months. Every day counts in matters pertaining to publication of inventions and patentable technology, since the outcome of patent prosecution, interference actions, and even patent litigation may depend on differences of days or weeks.
Format Flexibility - Even the formats of published technical disclosures can vary significantly, depending on the particular goals of the author and the complexity of the disclosed technology. The length of disclosures ranges widely, and many can be found that are less than a page in length, whereas others are many pages in length. A typical disclosure is one or two pages in length and often contains nothing other than a title, an abstract, and a description of the invention including a visual representation such as graphs, chemical structures, process charts, citations, tables of data, schematics, etc.
Content Control - Finally, since they are not subjected to peer or editorial review, the author has full control in determining the content. This should be used to your advantage in your writing. For example, you can choose which pieces of an invention to disclose and which to keep secret. Or you can provide market information regarding the potential value of the invention if your purpose is to advertise your pending patent. You can choose your context and citations based on how you want readers to think about your technology, or you can suggest wide ranges of applications. It all depends on your goals in writing the disclosure.
