The specification (of a patent) shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same....

US Patent Law 35 U.S.C. 112 - 1st paragraph

Strong, valuable and enforceable patents require full, clear and concise written descriptions that enable any person skilled the art to make and use an invention.

It is very tempting to file a patent application as soon as you have an exciting new idea - even before you have fully fleshed out the concept. However, filing a fuzzy patent application can undermine your future ability to get effective patent protection. When such an application gets published, you will have disclosed your idea to the world, but since you haven't actually clearly shown how to implement the idea, you are unlikely to get a strong patent, if you get any patent at all.

Furthermore, you've tipped off your competition. If it's a promising idea, they may solve the practical problems, file their own patent applications with better thought out enabling descriptions of how the invention works and ultimately shut you out of your own market with their much stronger patent portfolio. Until you know how to implement your idea, it is best to protect it with secrecy agreements. Even with secrecy agreements, you should still use some judgment as to who you tell your idea to in order to minimize the chance that it will be leaked to the public before you are ready to file.

One way to see if you are ready to file is to answer the question:

"What do the computers do?"

Computers are essential to almost every aspect of bringing a new insurance product to market. Computers aren't required to get a patent in the insurance field, but if you can describe what the computers would do to implement your insurance business method process, chances are you can make an enabling description in your patent application.

For example, our guest writer this month, Matt Schoen, and his coinventor, Jean-Philippe Khodara, had an exciting idea for a new type of disability insurance product that would protect 401(k) contributions. They didn't file their patent application, however, until they could describe what their computers did to implement their inventive process. When their patent issued, it mostly covered the computer hardware and software required to administer and price the product. Their patent, US 6,235,176, "Computer Apparatus and Method for Defined Contribution and Profit Sharing Pension and Disability Plan", has withstood the scrutiny of some very sharp legal counsel hired by their potential licensees. Their patent survived the scrutiny and they successfully concluded a licensing deal.

You must be able to describe how to make and use an invention in order to get a patent on it. A description that does that is "enabling" and should satisfy the requirements of patent law. Until you reach that point, you need to protect your idea with secrecy agreements. A good test to see if you are ready to file a patent application is to see if you can describe what the computers must do in order to bring your new insurance product to market.