I 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

I 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.