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How to read patents
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 to read 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
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
