What is a patent application?

A patent can be viewed as a mutual agreement between the inventor and society, where the inventor discloses their invention in exchange for legal protection. It is crucial that the scope of protection for the inventor is in line with the disclosure made in the patent application, as a matter of fairness. The patent application serves to explain and support the claims made by the inventor, and it would be unjust to grant protection for something that was not disclosed in the application. Similarly, it would not be appropriate to give broad protection for a small portion of the invention disclosed. For instance, an inventor cannot claim a patent for an entire car when they only contributed to a headlight. Disclosure requirements vary among different countries, with the US mandating the disclosure of the best mode of carrying out the invention, while other countries allow for some information to be reserved by the inventor. As long as the invention is implementable, an imperfect result is acceptable.