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There's a great comment on the article itself by a Max Kennerly, who appears to be a practicing attorney. He cites a Federal Circuit court opinion that basical
by danshapiro 16y ago
There's a great comment on the article itself by a Max Kennerly, who appears to be a practicing attorney. He cites a Federal Circuit court opinion that basically says - yes, the claims must and do stand alone. You're quite right that if you know nothing about the patent you may be lost in the claims, but from a legal standpoint, they should be sufficient. And more practically, if you come to the patent knowing a lot about the field, you'll usually get a very good sense of the thing from the claims alone.
And if you've only got a minute, you're time will be far better spent in the claims than in the abstract, description, or title, which is what most people do!
- hristov 16y agoI am also a practicing patent attorney, and the case Mr. Kennerly cites to is the well known Phillips case. In any event, that case says that claim terms can be defined by the specification. I agree that if you have a minute only and you are worried about infringement it may be a good idea to start from the independent claims. But you should not fool yourself that you have read the whole patent. Because if you only read the claims, and even if you think you understand the claims perfectly you can be in for a nasty surprise if you do not read the spec.