PATENT BASIS AND OVERVIEW

MARIA SWIATEK APRIL 7, 2014

NIXON PEABODY LLP

TOPICS

— Introduction

— Patent Basics

— Why Patents?

— Patent Process Considerations

— Patent Process Timeline

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INTRODUCTION

PATENT BASICS

PATENT BASICS

— What does a patent cover?

• “new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof…”

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PATENT BASICS

— What is patentable?

• Process – an act, or a series of acts or steps.

• Machine – a concrete thing, consisting of parts, or of certain devices and combination of devices.

• Manufacture – an article produced from raw or prepared materials by giving to these materials new forms, qualities, properties, or combinations, whether by handlabor or by machinery.

• Composition of matter – all compositions of two or more substances and all composite articles, whether they be the results of chemical union, or of mechanical mixture, or whether they be gases, fluids, powders or solids, for example.

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PATENT BASICS

— What is patentable?

• Complex technology to simple ideas

• Incremental improvements

— What is not patentable?

• Abstract or impossible ideas

• Laws of nature

• A naturally occurring organism; human per se

• Transitory forms of signal transmission, e.g., a propagating electrical or electromagnetic signal per se

• A computer program per se

• Data structures

• Non-functional descriptive material

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PATENT BASICS

— What are the criteria for obtaining a patent?

• The invention must be:

USEFUL

• Invention has some utility.

NEW

• Invention must be distinguishable over any existing idea, known as the “prior art.”

• Considerations include whether invention has been previously published, made, in public use, offered for sale or otherwise available prior to date of filing / conception.

NON-OBVIOUS

• Invention must be more than just an “obvious” combination of existing ideas (based on a multifactor analysis).

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PATENT BASICS

Patent prosecution is the process by which an invention is:

— Fully documented in an application

— Filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”)

— Revised and/or argued in (typically) multiple iterations with the USPTO

— Eventually leading to (hopefully) a notice of allowance and an issued patent

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PATENT BASICS

What are the types of patent applications?

— Provisional Patent Applications

• Preliminarily discloses an invention that is proper subject matter for a possible utility patent filing (within one year).

• Establishes filing date, but does not provide “full” patent protection.

— Utility (“Non-Provisional”) Patents

• Provides “full” patent protection for useful processes, machines, manufactures, or composition of matter.

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PATENT BASICS

— Design Patents

• Provides patent protection for ornamental design for an article of manufacture, rather than functional/operational features.

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FIG. 1U.S. Design Pat. App. No. 29/402,542

Alexander Crib

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TYPES OF PATENTS

Provisional Patent Application— preliminary disclosure of an

invention that is proper subject matter for a utility patent

— Holds your “place in line”

Utility Patents— Includes useful processes,

machines, manufactures, or composition of matter

Design Patents— new, original and ornamental

design for an article of manufacture (“look and feel”)

Plant Patents

KEY ELEMENTS OF A PATENT

Specification

— The specification is a narrative that clearly describes the existing technology and the improvement(s) made by the invention.

— The specification establishes that the inventor had possession of the invention.

— The specification must provide sufficient detail to allow a person having ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention.

— Examiner may raise objections or rejections for inadequate or unclear specification.

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KEY ELEMENTS OF A PATENT

Drawings

— Drawings must be included to illustrate each aspect of the invention as detailed in the specification and claims.

— Drawings must be formatted per requirements.

• Numbered to correspond to description in specification

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KEY ELEMENTS OF A PATENT

Claims

— Claims are detailed statements of exactly what your invention covers.

• Claims must follow strict requirements for wording and format.

• Claims are key to defining the scope of your patent rights.

• Patent Claims are like a deed to property, they define the meets and bounds of what your invention is, and what you can exclude others from doing.

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KEY ELEMENTS OF A PATENT

Claims

— Claims are detailed statements of exactly what your invention covers

• Must follow strict requirements for wording and format

• Claims are key to defining the scope of your patent rights!

— Example claim language:

• 1. A plastic reclosable fastener with slider particularly suited for thermoplastic bags and the like comprising a pair of flexible plastic strips having separable fastener means extending along the length thereof comprising reclosable interlocking male and female profile elements …

• What is this?? See next slide for the answer …

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WHAT PROTECTION DOES A PATENT PROVIDE?

— Grants owner right to exclude others from practicing the claimed invention

• Prevents competitors from making, using, selling, offering to sell and/or importing without license.

— For a limited time

• Typically, 20 years from the filing date.

— Patent is NOT permission to practice the invention free and clear

• If device is covered by patents (a) + (b), ownership of patent (b) is not enough to build and sell the device.

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FOREIGN PATENT PROTECTION

— Patent application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (“PCT”)

• Streamlines the process of filing in numerous countries

• Able to file one application now, and make decisions on specific countries to pursue down the road

— Patent application filed directly in foreign jurisdictions, e.g., non-PCT countries

— Patent application filed before European Patent Office

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WHY PATENTS?

WHY PATENTS?

Patents can be a key component of a companies’ IP strategy

— Offensive use:

• Provides strong rights in invention for limited time period

Force others to pay royalties / take license

— Defensive use:

• Can use your patent portfolio to defend against infringement claims by competitors

• May lead to cross-licensing arrangements in the case of blocking patents

• Provides defensive publications

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PRACTICAL POINTS

The U.S. process has changed

— Recently passed America Invents Act (“AIA”)

— U.S. has moved from “first to invent” to “first to file” standard

• Consistent with other foreign jurisdictions.

• Important to win the race to the patent office, the first to file now is entitled to the patent

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PROTECT YOUR IDEAS

— Think about IP protection for an idea as early as possible.

— Proper documentation in the early stage can help to avoid later issues.

• When was the idea first conceived?

• Who are the inventors?

• Who owns it?

• When was it reduced to practice?

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PROTECT YOUR IDEAS

— Develop and adopt best practices for documenting R&D.

• Documentation may include:

Engineering notebooks

Information disclosure forms

Weekly status reports may show progress of a project

Meeting minutes

Emails

Electronic documents IF sufficient information to determine date and version information

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PROTECT YOUR IDEAS

— Avoid “starting the clock”

• Submit an invention disclosure before public disclosure.

• Be aware of the on sale and public use restrictions.

• Timing is very important - missing a critical date can be a complete bar to patentability.

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PROTECT YOUR IDEAS

— Consider:

• What are the inventions?

• What are different embodiments?

• How might the industry landscape change and affect how the application is prosecuted?

• How should the invention be protected (utility, design, etc.)?

• How are the inventions patent eligible, new, non-obvious?

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ANALYZING THE INVENTION

— Review “state of the art”

• Consider all known publications, papers and products.

• Perform a “prior art” search to determine if invention is patentable or blocked by a prior disclosure.

• Consider possible adjustment to direction of your idea/business.

• Avoid wasted R&D effort and allow for tweaks to the idea to better leverage IP.

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THE PATENT PROSECUTION PROCESS

TIMELINE

— Pre-filing

• Prior art search (optional)

• Submission of disclosure documents

• Collaboration between NP and inventors to prepare application

— Filing Date (establishes priority)

• Complete application must be filed with specification and claims

• All required supporting documents

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TIMELINE

— Patent Office Administration

• Preliminary review to insure application meets formalities

• Assignment of patent to Examining group based on technology

— First Office Action (typically issued 1-2 years after filing)

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TIMELINE

— Office Actions

• Examiner provides opinion on whether the claims are patentable

• Each claim may be subject to:

Objection Rejection Allowance

• Examiner may reject a claim based on:

Prior art that discloses all the claim elements (anticipating the claim)

Combination of prior art has that discloses all the claim elements (rendering the claim obvious)

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TIMELINE

— Response to Office Action (due 3 months after mailing date)

• Input from inventors

• Claims can be amended

• Submission of written arguments as to patentability

• Possible interview with Examiner

— Subsequent Office Actions (typically 4-6 months after previous response)

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TIMELINE

— Final Office Action

• Examiner still rejects claims.

— Response to Final Office Action

• File an Appeal to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (12-18 month process)

• File a Request for Continuing Examination (RCE)

Resets prosecution for another office action and corresponding opportunities to argue

May delay the patent because of new rules

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TIMELINE

— Foreign Applications (12 months after filing)

— Publication of Application (18 months after filing)

• Application becomes a public record, unless secrecy is requested

— Divisional, continuation, continuation-in-part applications (due by issue date)

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TIMELINE

— Allowance

• Examiner agrees that patent should be issued

• Issue fee must be paid

— Payment of Issue fee (2 months after notice of allowance)

— Issue Notice (1-2 months after payment of issue fee

— Mailing of Patent Certificate

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REAL WORLD EXAMPLE

U n ited S ta tes P a ten t (to) Patent No.: US 6,544,345 B1

Mayer et al. (45) Date of Patent: Apr. 8, 2003

(54) METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IN-SITU CLEANING OF SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING EQUIPMENT USING COMBINATION CHEMISTRIES

(75) Inventors: Bruce E. Mayer, Soquel; Robert H. Chatham, III, Scotts Valley; Nitin K. Ingle, Campbell; Zheng Yuan, Fremont, all of CA (US)

(73) Assignee: Asml US, Inc., Scotts Valley, CA (US)

( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 172 days.

(21) Appl. No.: 09/615,035

(22) Filed: Jul. 12, 2000

Related U.S. Application Data (60) Provisional application No. 60/143,285, filed on Jul. 12,

1999.

(51) Int. C1.7 BO8B 7/04 (52) U.S. Cl. 134/28; 134/1.2; 134/26;

134/30; 134/22.1; 134/22.18; 438/905 (58) Field of Search .......................................... 134/1, 1.1, 1.2,

134/1.3, 2, 3, 22.1, 22.18, 26, 28, 30; 438/905

(56) References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

4,976,996 A 12/1990 Monkowski et al. 427/255.5 5,091,219 A 2/1992 Monkowski et al. 427/255.5 5,620,526 A 4/1997 Watatani et al. ............. 134/1.1 5,658,417 A 8/1997 Watanabe et al. ........... 156/345 5,679,215 A 10/1997 Barnes et al. .............. 156/646.1 5,716,495 A 2/1998 Butterbaugh et al. 156/643.1 5,756,400 A 5/1998 Ye et al. 5,788,778 A 8/1998 Shang et al. ..................... 134/1 5,843,239 A 12/1998 Shrotriya ....................... 134/1.1

FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS

EP 0697467 2/1996 ............. C23C/16/44

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Xia, et al. "High Aspect Ratio Trench Filling Using Two–Step Subatmospheric Chemical Vapor Deposition Borophosphosilicate Glass <0.1S um Device Application", Journal of the Electrochemical Society, vol. 146, 1999, pp. 1884-1888.

Xia, et al. "High Temperature Subatmospheric Chemical Vapor Deposited Undoped Silicate Glass; A Solution for Next Generation Shallow Trench Isolation", Journal of the Electrochemical Society, vol. 146, pp. 1181-1185.

Mendicino, et al., "Motorola Evaluation of the Applied Science and Technology, Inc. (ASTeX) ASTRON Technol-ogy for Perfluorocompound (PFC) Emissions Reductions on the Applied Materials DxL Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) Chamber", International SEMATECH Technology Tranfer # 99033697A–TR Apr. 16, 1999, 33 pgs.

Primary Examiner _ Alexander Markoff (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Dorsey & Whitney LLP

(57) ABSTRACT

An in-situ, two step or combination, method and system for cleaning of semiconductor manufacturing equipment is pro-vided. The present invention utilizes two separate fluorine based chemistries in each step which selectively target the removal of different types of deposits that build up on the equipment surfaces. In particular, powdery and dense film-like solid deposits, as well as a combination of both, build up on the chamber surfaces and associated equipment com-ponents. These two types of deposits are removed selec-tively by the present invention. Such selective targeting of combined cleaning steps, yields an improved cleaning tech-nique. In another embodiment, the method and system of the present invention provides for cleaning of the chamber and associated equipment using separate steps with different chemicals, and then performing these steps in a variety of desired sequences.

DE 4132559.1 4/1993 ............... C23F/4/00 21 Claims, 8 Drawing Sheets

U.S. Patent Apr. 8, 2003 Sheet 1 of 8 US 6,544,345 B1

FIG. 1

Area for Deposition & Cleaning Gas-Controls

7-10

We claim:

1. A method of cleaning deposits in semiconductor manufacturing equipment wherein there are different types of deposits including powdery and dense film-like deposits, characterized in that the equipment is cleaned using two separate steps, each of said steps using different fluorine containing chemicals to selectively clean the different deposits.

(12) United States Patent Patent No.:US 6,544,345 B1

Mayer et al. Date of Patent: Apr. 8, 2003