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Be Wary of What You Ask for: The Dangers of Improper Claim Drafting

Some inventions are easily characterized as a pure process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter and lend themselves to a single independent claim and a simple set of dependent claims. Many inventions, however, involve two or more of the statutory categories of subject matter, and require several independent claims, often creatively drafted, with mapped sets of dependent claims for complete coverage. Can a claim that straddles the line between the statutory categories of subject matter or that does not technically distinguish the invention from other claims be found invalid as an improperly drafted claim?

20 minute readNovember 28, 2006 at 02:58 PM
By
Paul A. Ragusa
Lisa Tyner
Be Wary of What You Ask for: The Dangers of Improper Claim Drafting

Some inventions are easily characterized as a pure process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter and lend themselves to a single independent claim and a simple set of dependent claims.

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