Means-plus-function Claims
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Means-plus-function Claims
This is a list of special types of claims that may be found in a patent or patent application. For explanations about independent and dependent claims and about the different categories of claims, i.e. product or apparatus claims (claims referring to a physical entity), and process, method or use claims (claims referring to an activity), see Claim (patent), section "Basic types and categories". ''Beauregard'' In United States patent law, a ''Beauregard'' claim is a claim to a computer program written in the form of a claim to an article of manufacture: a computer-readable medium on which are encoded, typically, instructions for carrying out a process. This type of claim is named after the 1995 decision ''In re Beauregard''. The computer-readable medium that these claims contemplate is typically a floppy disk or CD-ROM, which is why this type of claim is sometimes called a "floppy disk" claim. In the past claims to pure instructions were generally considered not patentable be ...
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Claim (patent)
In a patent or patent application, the claims define in technical terms the extent, i.e. the scope, of the protection conferred by a patent, or the protection sought in a patent application. The claims particularly point out the subject matter which the inventor(s) regard as their invention. In other words, the purpose of the claims is to define which subject matter is protected by the patent (or sought to be protected by the patent application). This is termed as the "notice function" of a patent claim—to warn others of what they must not do if they are to avoid patent infringement, infringement liability. The claims are of paramount importance in both patent prosecution, prosecution and lawsuit, litigation. For instance, a claim could read: * "An apparatus for catching mice, said apparatus comprising a base, a spring member coupled to the base, and ..." * "A chemical composition for cleaning windows, said composition substantially consisting of 10–15% ammonia, ..." * "Method ...
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Exhaustion Doctrine
The exhaustion of intellectual property rights constitutes one of the limits of intellectual property (IP) rights. Once a given product has been sold under the authorization of the IP owner, the reselling, rental, lending and other third party commercial uses of IP-protected goods in domestic and international markets are governed by the principle. After a product covered by an IP right, such as by a patent right, has been sold by the IP right owner or by others with the consent of the owner, the IP right is said to be exhausted. It can no longer be exercised by the owner. This limitation is also referred to as the exhaustion doctrine or first sale doctrine. For example, if an inventor obtains a patent on a new kind of umbrella, the inventor (or anyone else to whom he sells his patent) can legally prohibit other companies from making and selling this kind of umbrella, but cannot prohibit customers who have bought this umbrella from the patent owner from reselling the umbrella to thir ...
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Reports Of Patent, Design And Trade Mark Cases
A report is a document or a statement that presents information in an organized format for a specific audience and purpose. Although summaries of reports may be delivered orally, complete reports are usually given in the form of written documents. Typically reports relay information that was found or observed. The credible report enhances the previous beliefs while dishonest information can question the agency preparing the report. Reports from IPCC as IPCC reports, World Health Report and Global Gender Gap Report from World Economic Forums are few examples of reports highlighting important worldly affairs. Usage In modern business scenario, reports play a major role in the progress of business. Reports are the backbone to the thinking process of the establishment and they are responsible, to a great extent, in evolving an efficient or inefficient work environment. The significance of the reports includes: * Reports present adequate information on various aspects of the bu ...
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Judicial Committee Of The House Of Lords
Whilst the House of Lords of the United Kingdom is the upper chamber of Parliament and has government ministers, for many centuries it had a judicial function. It functioned as a court of first instance for the trials of peers and for Impeachment in the United Kingdom, impeachments, and as a court of last resort in the United Kingdom and prior, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of England. Appeals were technically not to the House of Lords, but rather to the King-in-Parliament. In Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876, 1876, the Appellate Jurisdiction Act devolved the appellate functions of the House to an Appellate Committee, composed of Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, Lords of Appeal in Ordinary (informally referred to as Law Lords). They were then appointed by the Lord Chancellor in the same manner as other judges. During the 20th and early 21st century, the judicial functions were gradually removed. Its final trial of a peer was in 1935, and the use of special courts for ...
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Official Journal Of The European Patent Office
The ''Official Journal of the European Patent Office'' (''OJ EPO'') is a monthly trilingual publication of the European Patent Office (EPO). It contains "notices and information of a general character issued by the President of the European Patent Office, as well as any other information relevant to he English and French language">French, the three official languages of the EPO. The three texts coexist in the same issue of the journal. The journal is published on the last day of the month. History The first issue of the ''Official Journal of the EPO'' was published in December 1977, two months after the European Patent Convention entered into force on October 7, 1977. The first issue starts with a foreword by Johannes Bob van Benthem, the first President of the EPO. Until 2014, the ''Official Journal'' was published both on paper and online. On January 1, 2014, the paper edition was discontinued; only the online edition remains (free of charge). In addition, as from 2014, the art ...
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European Patent Convention
The European Patent Convention (EPC), also known as the Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, is a multilateral treaty instituting the European Patent Organisation and providing an autonomous legal system according to which European patents are granted. The term ''European patent'' is used to refer to patents granted under the European Patent Convention. However, a European patent is not a unitary right, but a group of essentially independent nationally enforceable, nationally revocable patents, subject to central revocation or narrowing as a group pursuant to two types of unified, post-grant procedures: a time-limited opposition procedure before the European Patent Office, opposition procedure, which can be initiated by any person except the patent proprietor, and limitation and revocation procedures, which can be initiated by the patent proprietor only. The EPC provides a legal framework for the granting of European patents, via a single, harmonised p ...
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Permutation
In mathematics, a permutation of a set can mean one of two different things: * an arrangement of its members in a sequence or linear order, or * the act or process of changing the linear order of an ordered set. An example of the first meaning is the six permutations (orderings) of the set : written as tuples, they are (1, 2, 3), (1, 3, 2), (2, 1, 3), (2, 3, 1), (3, 1, 2), and (3, 2, 1). Anagrams of a word whose letters are all different are also permutations: the letters are already ordered in the original word, and the anagram reorders them. The study of permutations of finite sets is an important topic in combinatorics and group theory. Permutations are used in almost every branch of mathematics and in many other fields of science. In computer science, they are used for analyzing sorting algorithms; in quantum physics, for describing states of particles; and in biology, for describing RNA sequences. The number of permutations of distinct objects is  factorial, us ...
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Chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, properties, behavior and the changes they undergo during chemical reaction, reactions with other chemical substance, substances. Chemistry also addresses the nature of chemical bonds in chemical compounds. In the scope of its subject, chemistry occupies an intermediate position between physics and biology. It is sometimes called the central science because it provides a foundation for understanding both Basic research, basic and Applied science, applied scientific disciplines at a fundamental level. For example, chemistry explains aspects of plant growth (botany), the formation of igneous rocks (geology), how atmospheric ozone is formed and how environmental pollutants are degraded (ecology), the prop ...
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Markush Structure
A Markush structure, Markush group, or a Markush claim is a representation of alternatively useable members. Markush structures are frequently used with chemical structures to indicate a group of related chemical compounds. They are commonly used in chemistry texts and in List of patent claim types#Markush, patent claims. Markush structures are depicted with multiple independently variable groups, such as Side chain, R groups in which a side chain can have varying structure. This more general depiction of the molecule, versus detailing every atom in the molecule, is used to protect intellectual property. The company which applies for a patent makes a general claim for the usage of the molecule without revealing to their competitors the exact molecule for which they are declaring a useful application. History Markush structures are named after Eugene A. Markush, founder of the Pharma Chemical Corporation in New Jersey. He was involved in a legal case that set a precedent for g ...
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Double Patenting
Double patenting is the granting of two patents for a single invention, to the same proprietor and in the same country or countries. According to the European Patent Office, it is an accepted principle in most patent systems that two patents cannot be granted to the same applicant for one invention. However, the threshold for double patenting varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. By jurisdiction Australia Australian patent law includes a statutory bar on double patenting to the same inventor, but not to different inventors, for the same invention. Subsection 64(1) firstly grants the Commissioner of Patents a discretion to grant multiple patents for the same invention: :"Subject to this section, where there are 2 or more applications for patents for identical, or substantially identical, inventions, the granting of a patent on one of those applications does not prevent the granting of a patent on any of the other applications." However, Subsection 64(2) prohibits such grant ...
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Festo Corp
Festo is a German automation company based in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany. Festo produces and sells pneumatic and electrical control systems and drive technology for factories and process automation. Festo Didactic also offers industrial education and consultation services and is one of the sponsors and partners of the WorldSkills Mechatronics Competitions. Sales subsidiaries, distribution centres and factories of Festo are located in 61 countries worldwide. The company was named after its founders Albert Fezer and Gottlieb Stoll. Animal robots Festo is known for making moving robots that move like animals such as the seagull-like SmartBird, jellyfish, butterflies and the BionicKangaroo. In 2018 they also added a flying fox and a rolling spider to the list. Festo calls their Bionic Flying Fox an “ultra-lightweight flying object with intelligent kinematics.” See also * Robotino Robotino is a mobile robot, mobile robot system made by ''Festo Didactic'', and use ...
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Point Of Novelty
Novelty is one of the patentability requirements for a patent claim, whose purpose is to prevent issuing patents on known things, i.e. to prevent public knowledge from being taken away from the public domain.: "I. Patentability; C. Novelty; 1. General" ("An invention can be patented only if it is new. An invention is considered to be new if it does not form part of the state of the art. The purpose of Art. 54(1) EPC is to prevent the state of the art being patented again (T 12/81, OJ 1982, 296; T 198/84, OJ 1985, 209).") An invention is anticipated (i.e. not new) and therefore not patentable if it was known to the public before the priority date of the patent application. Although the concept of "novelty" in patent law appears simple and self-explanatory, this view is very far from reality. Some of the most contentious questions of novelty comprise: # inventor's own prior disclosures (only a few countries provide a grace period, most notably, 1 year in the US); # new uses of kno ...
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