Can patent description refer to drawings

Question

Can patent drawings be described in the detailed description of the patent? Can the description refer to a drawing as a whole or only its elements by their reference number?

In other words should the description be independent of the drawings, basically describing the SAME elements as the drawings and nothing more?

If the description can refer to a drawing, it is not only describing the same thing as the drawings but in fact also describing a description (the drawing) of the invention. Is such a description containing a reference to a drawing allowed?

To make it more concrete, I have a system diagram showing parts of the invention. Then in further diagrams I show how those parts interact with each other. The elements in those other diagrams should use the same reference numbers I assume because they are showing the same elements (again). But now if in the verbal description I only use the reference numbers then it is hard to know which diagram I'm talking about. Whereas if I can say "In diagram X the element 302 interacts with ..." that would be clearer.

I guess this could be solved by giving each line connecting elements of a diagram its own reference-number. But I haven't seen examples of such patent-drawings, but I have not seen very many examples at all.

Answer 1

Yes, the description does refer to the drawings. Besides numbering the reference items they should all be given unique names and you can use the names when describing the drawings. Including the reference number after the name does not need to be done every time the name is used. If you are talking about a particular interaction between two reference items you can say - "Figure 3 shows the output of the modulator (3) connected to the input of the high frequency amplifier (4). Deciding what your drawings will show, coming up with good, unique, names and staying consistent with those names will go a long way to starting a good description.