The Patent

… The patent began before a meeting and negotiations with a Japanese company, and it is customary to sign a mutual non-disclosure business agreement. The lawyer of the company that funded us prepared it, and when the partner read it, he became angry.
“What is it? they sell us”
Immediately, he made an appointment with our lawyer. The lawyer did not panic; he changed a word here and there and wanted to be done with it. However, the partner insisted on accurate wording of a section that deals with patents. Therefore, the lawyer suggested that we consult a special lawyer, who is an expert in patents.
We went to a consult with the expert lawyer. Two hundred and fifty dollars per hour. With common efforts, the partner and the lawyer phrased the overwhelming formulation of the patent section, so that no one, even the Japanese, will be able to set up us with this matter. We started to go out well hearted from the meeting when the expert said:
“This agreement will not help you too much/ If you want a better protection write a patent.”
“How much the patent will cost us?”
“About fifteen hundred dollars,” said the expert.
The office of the patent lawyer is not a regular office, but a whole plant that is located in a villa in the Oshiot neighborhood, and it has branches in other towns, Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. The villa was probably used for the lawyer’s residence, and with the development of the business, he moved to live somewhere else. There is a central big room, and around it passages with many small rooms, where a patent writer sits in each one. It appears that bathrooms were also converted for this purpose. The walls are hardly visible because piles of patent bags are lying, with complete disorder, one over the other, to a nearly two meters height. It appears that they are going to collapse any moment. The lawyer’s office is on the second floor, and external curved iron stairs, outside the building, are used to climb to it.
A few days later, after we made an appointment, we found ourselves, the partner, and me in the little room of Yael. Yael, in her thirties, is good-looking, and it seems that a few years ago, she was even more good-looking. We sit at ease and begin to tell her about our company, how we started, what do we do, and with whom we have connections. Our advantages, plans, and more. Yael listens heartily with sympathy, and here and there comments something. She understood the subject well. From time to time, we stop and switch to daily matters and occasionally, a few jokes. So, three hours pass pleasantly, and we make an additional meeting and farewell Yael.
Next meeting, we begin to describe in detail the structure of our device and the process of its development and production. Yael knows everything. We only begin with some explanation, and she already knows; therefore, we detail everything, explain the physical principles, the arguments that determine the chemical processes, and why it is done this way and not that way. Yael listens and understand, and we think how lucky we are to have her particularly.
The explanations continue for more than two hours when Yael asks carefully:
“Where is the patent?”
And here comes more explanations and clarifications. Yael, with all gentleness, reminds us that each hour costs us hundred dollars. The partner nods his head, but I see that from the inside, he begins to explode. The lawyer forgot to tell him. However, he showed self-control and only his passion to talk fell dramatically. And I, that until now, was a second partner to the talk, find myself the main speaker. I mutter something, in order to gain time, and frantically think about what logical structure can be built here, and what can be said. Eventually, I appealed to Yael:
“Look, the operation of our device is based on a new principle which is not familiar in the scientific literature. There is a movement in the device from here to there that is familiar, but there is an additional movement from there to here, that is not known, and its effect was not taken into account. This is definitely a real innovation.”
Yael nods her head, but she now has a date with other inventors. Therefore, we decide on an additional date and say good bye.
In the next meeting I went alone because the partner lost interest. We sit again in Yael’s little room and talk pleasantly about it. I tried to suggest that maybe I will summarize the subject in writing, and it will be easier to deal with it because it is complicated. However, Yael opposed and explained that I see the matter as an inventor and she as a patent writer, and it is not the same thing. It is better that I will explain it verbally, and she will take notes. So, I talk about this principle and that detail, and Yael listens to and writes quietly.
Through the window, whose shutter is half closed, a pomegranate bush is observed growing in a small yard, and its green leaves are shiny in sunlight. The room itself is slightly dark, and only the sun rays that penetrate through the shutter slots light it. With a little absence of mind, I continue with the explanations, and we advance with the description of the invention and its originality until Yael finishes with the notes and tells me:
“Now it’s my turn. Come in a week and I’ll prepare a draft until then.”
After a week, I looked over the draft and told her that generally it’s OK, but now it’s my turn, and in a few days, I will return a corrected version. I went back to my room, took a large sheet of paper, and began to write claims to originality one by one. For each claim, I decided what is prior to what, what is included in what, what follows what, what is needed, and what is not. Thus, after six hours, I had a glorious tree of claims that I added to Yael’s draft.
“As is well known to all the experts who are familiar with this field of science…”, “this method, in the most general sense…, and particularly the application to…, …which is also a preferred application of…”, “a method, a process and a device…”, “The said application of the invention, which is also…”.
The next meeting with Yael was very short. We go over the text that I wrote, clarify points that are not clear enough, and emphasize arguments that are not sufficiently prominent. I say good-bye to Yael, and leave.
Additional meeting did not occur. Yael sends me the final version by mail.
The partner, whose opinion on Yael had cooled since their last meeting, asked the lawyer to go over the final version of the patent.
“No problem. There is a chemistry expert in our Jerusalem branch. He will examine it”.
The expert from Jerusalem, hundred and fifty dollars per hour, read the document and approved it without any comment. This did not satisfy the partner, and he asked the lawyer to go over it personally. The lawyer, two hundred and fifty dollars per hour, as mentioned before, said that he was very overworked. However, he nevertheless promised to go over the document in about three days during the flight to the United States. He also had no comments, and the patent that cost us four thousand dollars in the full final bill, was underway. The continuing events that followed were far less delightful, as I already wrote to you in an earlier letter.
A few weeks later, I passed near the Institute entrance and saw big slogans hung on the entrance building: “Against withdraw from the Golan,” “The people with the Golan,” and a group of women demonstrators with signs: “Women for the Golan.” Yael, wearing a green beret, is leading. We smile as old acquaintances.
“Hye,”
“How are you?”
And Yael asks to tape a sticker “The people are with the Golan” on the back of my car. I apologize with some awkwardness and try to explain that the back of my car is innocent of stickers. However, Yael does not give up and starts a fast negotiation, which is cut off when the traffic light turns green. Later, I regretted that I did not let her, but it was too late.

https://www.tale.co.il/author/urila/

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