How to write a patent abstract

An abstract, just like a patent title (see the previous post), has to stick to the gist of the invention. It must briefly discuss only what the invention is, not the advantages. The advantages are left for the Prior Art section (read here). Better yet, the abstract is actually the first independent claim (from US Patent No. 6,202,053, Method and apparatus for generating segmentation scorecards for evaluating credit risk of bank card applicants.)

1. A computer implemented method for evaluating credit risk of bank card applicants comprising the steps of: a) dividing a population of bank card applicants into a plurality of sub-populations using a processing unit, based on a first factor selected from a factor group consisting of length of credit history, number of reported trades, reported delinquency, bank card utilization, and revolving balance acceleration; b) dividing at least one of said sub-populations into additional sub-populations based on a second factor selected from the factor group, the second factor being different from the first factor selected from the factor group; c) developing a scorecard for each of said plurality of sub-populations and additional sub-populations; d) applying one of said scorecards to a bank card application; and e) scoring said application, based on said applied scorecard. rewritten into a spoken, non-legalese language, the abstract should be this: A computer implemented method for evaluating credit risk of bank card applicants comprising the steps of dividing a population of bank card applicants into a plurality of sub-populations using a processing unit, based on a first factor selected from a factor group consisting of length of credit history, number of reported trades, reported delinquency, bank card utilization, and revolving balance acceleration; dividing at least one of the sub-populations into additional sub-populations based on a second factor selected from the factor group, the second factor being different from the first factor selected from the factor group; developing a scorecard for each of the plurality of sub-populations and additional sub-populations; applying one of the scorecards to a bank card application; and scoring the application, based on the applied scorecard. simple, isn't it? note bolded the's replacing patent language said's Also check out the previous post on patent titles.