Patent Claims Revisited: Examiners and Trolls

In this article, the author revisits the writing of claims, and demonstrates two other styles of writing them. In one style, the author shows how to write a more narrow and focused claim. In the other style, he shows how to write claims that are beyond broad - claims that can be written prior to actually inventing anything. Note that a patent claim must be a single sentence, although it may contain many clauses. The clauses are generally separated by semicolons, with corresponding line breaks to make the structure more apparent and enhance its readability. The author describes a tactic that is sometimes used by companies that are strictly in the intellectual property (IP) business. These are companies that file and market patents but produce no other goods. Companies that do this are called "patent trolls". They have no intent to create anything of value; instead, they generate revenue exclusively by filing lawsuits