The patent drawing must contain as many views or figures as necessary to show the invention. For a better understanding of the invention, a plan, elevation, section, or perspective views of the product may be added.
Scale
Detail views of portions of elements, on a larger scale, if necessary, may also be used. To show an enlarged view, it must be marked with a circle. The circle should have the view number as a legend. The size of the legend must comply with the standards of text height. The enlarged view should have a figure or view number.
All views of the drawing must be grouped together and arranged on the sheet(s) without wasting space.
Views must be scaled up to properly use the sheet space.
Exploded Views
Exploded views, with the separated parts embraced by a bracket, to show the relationship or order of assembly of various parts are permissible.
When an exploded view is shown in a figure which is on the same sheet as another figure, the exploded view should be placed in brackets.
Partial Views
When necessary, a view of a large machine or device in its entirety may be broken into partial views on a single sheet, or extended over several sheets if there is no loss in facility of understanding the view.
Partial views drawn on separate sheets must always be capable of being linked edge to edge so that no partial view contains parts of another partial view. A smaller scale view should be included showing the whole formed by the partial views and indicating the positions of the parts shown.
Where views on two or more sheets form, in effect, a single complete view, the views on the several sheets must be so arranged that the complete figure can be assembled without concealing any part of any of the views appearing on the various sheets.
A very long view may be divided into several parts placed one above the other on a single sheet. However, the relationship between the different parts must be clear and unambiguous.
Enlarged Views
To show an enlarged view by using tapering lines from the circular or rectangular area of the required part.
When a portion of a view is enlarged for magnification purposes, the view and the enlarged view must each be labeled as separate views.
Sectional views
The plane upon which a sectional view is taken should be indicated on the view from which the section is cut by a broken line. The ends of the broken line should be designated by Arabic or Roman numerals corresponding to the view number of the sectional view and should have arrows to indicate the direction of sight.
Hatching
Hatching must be used to indicate section portions of an object and must be made by regularly spaced oblique parallel lines spaced sufficiently apart to enable the lines to be distinguished without difficulty.
Hatching should not impede the clear reading of the reference characters and lead lines. If it is not possible to place reference characters outside the hatched area, the hatching may be broken off wherever reference characters are inserted. Hatching must be at a substantial angle to the surrounding axes or principal lines, preferably 45°.
A cross-section must be set out and drawn to show all of the materials as they are shown in the view from which the cross-section was taken.
The parts in the cross section must show proper material(s) by hatching with regularly spaced parallel oblique strokes, the space between strokes being chosen on the basis of the total area to be hatched.
The various parts of a cross-section of the same item should be hatched in the same manner and should accurately and graphically indicate the nature of the material(s) that is illustrated in the cross-section.
The hatching of juxtaposed different elements must be angled in a different way.
In the case of large areas, hatching may be confined to an edging drawn around the entire inside of the outline of the area to be hatched.
Different types of hatching should have different conventional meanings as regards the nature of a material seen in cross-section.
Alternate position
A moved position may be shown by a broken line superimposed upon a suitable view if this can be done without crowding; otherwise, a separate view must be used for this purpose.
Modified Forms
A product can be modified in a different way to look different. Modified forms of construction must be shown in separate views.
The same product is modified in multiple ways and can be used in different ways. However, they can be filed in a single application.
In a design patent, modified forms, or embodiments of a single design concept may be filed in one application. For example, vases with only minimal configuration differences may be considered a single design concept and both embodiments may be included in a single application.
Arrangement of views
The views must be in an upright position, clearly separated from one another, and must not be included in the sheets containing the specifications, claims, or abstract.
One view must not be placed upon another or within the outline of another.
All views on the same sheet should stand in the same direction and, if possible, stand so that they can be read with the sheet held in an upright position.
If views wider than the width of the sheet are necessary for the clearest illustration of the invention, the sheet may be turned on its side so that the top of the sheet, with the appropriate top margin to be used as the heading space, is on the right-hand side.
Words must appear in a horizontal, left-to-right fashion when the page is either upright or turned so that the top becomes the right side, except for graphs utilizing standard scientific convention to denote the axis of abscissas (of X) and the axis of ordinates (of Y).
Vertical or Portrait Layout:
Reference number, Figure number or any other text must be in an upright position as per view.
Horizontal or Landscape Layout:
Again, the Reference number, Figure number or any other text must be in an upright position as per view. And should not be confused with the header information of the sheet.
Focusing on the above-mentioned points will definitely help to overcome minor rejections from the examiner. To learn more about patent drawings follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.