Common Mistakes in Invention Disclosures (and Fixes)

Not legal advice. Use this as an internal QA guide.

1) Vague Problem Statements

  • Anti‑pattern: “Improve performance.”
  • Fix: quantify baseline and target (e.g., p99 latency 120ms → 45–60ms under workload X).

2) Hand‑wavy Technical Details

  • Anti‑pattern: “We use AI to optimize routing.”
  • Fix: specify model/algorithm, inputs/outputs, training/inference parameters, acceptance criteria.

3) Missing Variants

  • Anti‑pattern: only one path described.
  • Fix: list at least two plausible alternatives and discuss trade‑offs.

4) No Prior Art Context

  • Anti‑pattern: assumes novelty without comparison.
  • Fix: list closest approaches and explain concrete advantages.

5) Unlabeled or Missing Figures

  • Anti‑pattern: figures without labels or references in text.
  • Fix: label as Fig. 1, Fig. 2; reference them in relevant sections and maintain consistent terminology.

6) No Acceptance Criteria

  • Anti‑pattern: success is subjective.
  • Fix: define quantitative pass/fail thresholds tied to real use cases.

Before / After Example

  • Before: “New cache makes system faster.”
  • After: “Introducing a write‑through L2 cache (4–16MB) reduces p95 write latency from 85ms to 40–55ms at 70–85% utilization; acceptance p95≤60ms, no data loss.”

Final Check