Patent claim

Patent claims define the extent of the protection conferred by a patent, in technical terms. They are of the utmost importance both in examination proceedings and in litigation, for instance during infringement actions. There are usually in the form of a series of numbered long sentences following the description of the invention.

There are two basic types of claims: independent claims, which stand on their own, and dependent claims, which depend on a single claim or on several claims.

Claims can also be classified in terms of what they claim: it may be a product, an apparatus (or a system, etc), a process or a method, or a use.

History

Patent have not always contained claims. In many European countries, patents did not contain claims before the 1970s. It was then often difficult (and subjective) to decide whether or not a product infringed a patent, since the sole basis to know the extent of protection was the description, in view of the prior art.

Special types of claims

• Beauregard claims
• Jepson claims
• Markush claims
• Means-plus-function claims
• Product-by-process claims
• Reach-through claims
• Swiss-type claims

See also

• European Patent Convention (EPC), defining the extent of protection
• of the EPC, defining the role of claims