Vitality of Claims

Before reading this article you must be familiar with the term patent. In brief a patent is a right granted to an inventor by the federal government that permits the inventor to exclude others from making, selling or using the invention for a period of time. Now when you know what patent is, let’s dig deeper into it.
The paramount part of a whole patent document is its CLAIMS!
What is a Claim?
A Claim in a patent defines its scope i.e. the area of protection (right to exclude everyone or to solely have right on claimed technology) a patent gets or it can be define as the bounds of what the inventor is claiming as their invention. Claims are the most critical part of a patent as all the prosecutions and litigations are mainly done on claims only. Claims lead a patent. If a patent is a championship belt, then Claims is no doubt the heavy-weight that keeps throwing knock-out blows.
“If patent is body, claim is its soul!”
How to Identify a Claim?
- Claims are written as a single sentence.
- A claim starts with an identifier i.e. “Claim 1”.
- Claims are heavily punctuated (, : ; .).
- Claims happen to occur in the end of a granted patent or a patent application.
[“,” Is used after preamble.
“:” is used after transitional phase.
“;” is used to separate paragraphs within the body.
“.” Is used to end the claim.]
Parts of Claim
Let’s look into it with an example:
An apparatus, comprising:
a binding configured to hold the printed pages
together;and
a cover attached to the binding.
Where:
The preamble, which tells category and objective of invention.
Transitional Phrase, which joins preamble with body.
The Body, which tells what the invention is in a proper sentence.
Types of Transitions
Role of Transitional Phrases
Transitional phrases are the key of drafting a patent. Let’s see how this key is going to work for you.
CLOSE
- Narrowest
- e.g. comprising of, including, consisting of, et cetera.
- Least monetary benifits
- Less vulnurable to litigation
OPEN
- Broadest
- e.g. comprises, consists, et cetera.
- Greatest monetary benifits
- More vulnurable to litigation
HYBRID
- Midway
- e.g. consisting essentially of, et cetera.
- Moderate monetary benifits
- Moderately vulnurable to litigation