7
votes
Accepted
What is the role of dependent claims?
When filing a patent, the goal of the Independent Claim(s) is to define the invention as broadly as possible. Your goal is to obtain Freedom to Operate, with enough "white space" around your Preferred ...
- 1,735
7
votes
Urgent - My Patent Application received a Non-Final Rejection, Advice?
Hire a professional.
1) Neither question you ask can be answered with the information you gave, and even if you posted your application I doubt anyone would be willing to wade through it to give you ...
- 491
5
votes
How to check the novelty in a patent?
We were trained to start by reading claims, but claims are often hard to decipher. So, here's a few tips that may help you. 1 and 2 are the easiest, while 5 is probably the most authoritative.
Look ...
- 111
5
votes
Do you have to amend claims lacking novelty or an inventive step
Since you mention Articles 33(2) and (3) PCT, I assume that you requested International Preliminary Examination, and that the Examiner who drafted the International Preliminary Examination Report (...
5
votes
Accepted
Okay to use "optionally" in a claim?
Is it okay to use "optionally" in a claim?
No, for two reasons.
The purpose of an independent claim is to define the scope of the protection that you seek. Including an optional feature does not ...
- 6,103
5
votes
What is the difference between a withdrawn claim and a cancelled claim?
The implication with withdrawn is that you may seek to re-introduce it later while canceled is cancelled. However, at most points in the process you can enter amendments and an amendment could add a ...
- 26.2k
5
votes
Accepted
What is a difference between System Claims and Method Claims?
Speaking specifically of U.S. law, a system is a physical thing, just like a device, a machine, an apparatus, a manufactured item or a composition of mater. A method, or process, is a series of steps ...
- 26.2k
4
votes
Combinations of independent options creating exponentially numerous claims
You can include multiple independent claims of varying scope in a patent application. Each of these independent claims can have several dependent claims that are written using terminologies that may ...
- 646
4
votes
How to Use Patented Method Without Infringing?
Unless you are doing all of the steps of a claim you are not infringing it. Claim 1 of US8568309 requires putting voltage through a test strip, and getting readings from 3-axis accelerometers to ...
- 26.2k
4
votes
A patent with both apparatus (i.e. system) and method?
It is a good practice to include multiple independent claims of varying type (system, method, means etc) in a patent application. One should not restrict the invention by claiming it in only one form. ...
- 646
4
votes
Is there a custom or policy of obfuscating dangerous details in patents?
Originally, there was a requirement that the inventor teach the best mode (that the inventor knows about) in the specification. In recent years, that requirement has been a bit relaxed, but it still ...
- 121
4
votes
Claim dependence on later claim
You have asked about patents. However, your use of status identifiers (like "previously presented") implies you actually mean to ask about applications.
For applications, this is permitted (and in ...
- 6,103
4
votes
Accepted
Two aspects of the same invention and one aspect is not unique
So here we have a tidy distinction between description and claims.
Description
You must provide a description sufficiently detailed that the skilled person, reading your description, would understand ...
- 6,103
4
votes
Can claims be amended after patent contents become public?
You can amend and add claims in the application and can file continuation and divisional applications from it with new claims. However, any added or amended claims need to be fully supported in the ...
- 26.2k
4
votes
Accepted
Is the phrase "none or more" acceptable in a USPTO patent claim?
I hesitate to answer since I'm not a lawyer, but why don't you just have two dependent claims? Something like:
Claim 2: The method of claim 1, wherein A comprises B.
Claim 3: The method of ...
- 9,259
4
votes
Computer readable medium claim rejected by USPTO examiner
Yes, I do. Check out Claim 10 of US10067111B2
Which is an independent System claim referring to a method claim
And not only that, but the examiner proposed the amendment. Check out the response to ...
4
votes
Accepted
Can the preamble be same for all independent claims?
There is nothing wrong with being boring in writing claims.
- 26.2k
4
votes
Accepted
Can ML applied on an existing idea be patented?
I am not a lawyer but here is my take. If someone has a patent with a claim covering steps A, B and C and you file a patent application for using steps A, B and C plus machine learning (ML), you might ...
- 9,259
3
votes
Accepted
Finding prior art rejects an independent claim
A dependent claim is ALWAYS valid when its independent claim is valid. However, if an independent claim is invalidated, that DOES NOT ALWAYS necessarily mean that dependent claim is also invalid.
...
- 756
3
votes
I have a problem about the US Patent Examiner's requirement for the use of "a" rather than "the" in three of my claims
The rejection can easily be overcome by simply amending the claim to "a substantially transparent sphere having a center". You are currently limited by prosecution history estoppel. A telecon or ...
3
votes
If a dependent claim only limits the independent claim, then is it still infringement when a product only differs from that dependent claim?
You can't infringe a dependent claim without also infringing the independent claim (at least I haven't seen any case where it happened, since dependent claims are subsets of the independent claim). ...
- 653
3
votes
Accepted
How to write claim with only novel elements of my invention
Not every feature of your claim needs to be novel
It would be a very rare invention that consists entirely of a new thing with no previously existing components. Instead, an invention typically ...
- 6,103
3
votes
To patent a technology on a smart device and a yet to be made apparatus
Perhaps it would be clearer by going back to first principles for patents.
The purpose of a claim is to set out certain things that others cannot do. Once a patent is granted, nobody else can do ...
- 6,103
3
votes
Patent with Multiple Claims
Patent claims are numbered. So if a patent has claims 1, 2, 3 and 4, you can infringe on the patent if you practice even just one of the claims. However, a claim might have multiple steps in it. So if ...
- 9,259
3
votes
Accepted
Inventive step and how to express multiple solutions to a problem
So I will present one approach. But I should caution that this is not the approach, and others may quite reasonably differ.
If an inventive step solves several problems outlined in the background, ...
- 6,103
3
votes
Accepted
Claims statements repeated in different categories such as "a method for," "a system for," etc
Method
A method is the simplest: it simply comprises a series of steps. There is no obligation for any hardware to be included at all, though in most cases there will be some mention of the method ...
- 6,103
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