Anatomy of an Invention:
Rational for Inventor
Substance of the Invention
Background Questions
> Introduction
> Title of Invention
> Field of Invention
> What's the Problem?
> Prior Art
Description of Invention
> Drawings
> Text
> Adv. over Prior Art
> Innovative Steps
> Glossary
> References

Drawings:  The invention consists of two things, which are “elements” (that is, things or objects or structures), and “methods” (which are actions of one thing on or with or to another thing).  We might call these things “structure” and “flow”, respectively.

We need to receive from you at least two drawings that describe the invention.  One drawing will be the “elements” of the invention, in a figure called “The Block Drawing of Invention ___”.  Such a drawing will include every thing or object that is part of the invention.  Please note that you should assign an arbitrary number (say 110, 120, 130, etc., on the first drawing) to every element in the drawing.  Example: “Server (110) is the element which sends data to the user”.  These numbers will be very helpful for the text description below.

A second drawing will be the flow of action from one element to the other, and may be called “The Process Flow of Invention ____”.  You should assign an arbitrary number (say 210, 220, 230, 240, etc.), to each process flow in the drawing.  Then in the text, refer to any element or flow with its unique number.  Example: “Server (110) sends information (210) to database (120)”, where numbers 110 and 120 are elements, and number 210 is the process flow.

In addition to the drawings listed above, you may make any other drawings you want.  For example, you might include a separate drawing to describe prior art (that is to say, to describe the situation before your invention).  If there are more than two drawings, then the order of drawings, like the order of the text, will probably be from the very general to the less general and then to the very specific.  (For example, you might have a drawing for a database, and then have a drawing for specific records within that database.)  However, in many cases, two drawings will be OK.  It is possible that your drawings will be modified in the patent application, and in fact there may be more drawings than the number of drawings you give us.  Don’t worry about that.  You will have a chance to see and approve of all drawings that will be in the application.  For now, we need from you at least two drawings, one for the structure of the invention and another for the flow of the invention. 

If you want to combine these in one drawing, OK, but then it is very important that you make extremely clear what in drawing is part of the structure and what in the drawing is part of the flow.  Experience suggests that two drawings are generally much clearer – this may take a bit more time in the short run than one combined drawing, but will save serious time and aggravation later down the road.