Difference between revisions of "How to read patents"
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Revision as of 11:19, 14 August 2010
When reading patents, the most important part of a patent are the "claims". These are the ideas that are covered by the patent. It's a common mistake think of the abstract as a summary - it is not a summary. The abstract just describes the domain in which the claims are situated.
Contents
What to look for: the claims
The claims are not easy to find, look for a numbered list, introduced usually by either:
- What we claim is
- What is claimed is
Independent and dependent claims
There might be ten or a hundred claims. Most of these will be "dependent" claims which claim something in addition to a previous claim. For example:
- A box that makes noises;
- A box as claimed in claim 1, wherein said noises resemble a monster
- A box as claimed in claim 2, wherein said monster noises are scary
- A box as claimed in claim 1, wherein a toy monster sits
Here, claims 2, 3, and 4 are dependent claims. Claim #1 is an "independent" claim. This is important because if the independent claims don't cover software ideas, then the dependent claims can't cover software ideas. So, to determine if a patent is a software patent or not, you only have to read the independent claims.
Can you help? We need references to confirm (or correct) this explanation.
How to spot "software" claims
Patents can include claims on a mix of software and hardware ideas. When we say "hardware ideas", we mean claims that can only by infringed by making or distributing hardware. Here are example(s) of keywords that indicate that a claim might cover an idea which a software developer or software distributor might use:
- A method for... (at least in the USA)
Related pages on ESP Wiki
- Reading case law
- Searching for patents
- State of the art - and what is "prior art"?
- Design patents - which are not the same as normal patents
- Software patents are unreadable
- Patent governance
- What to do if worried by a software patent
- How to look for prior art
