Hello! Claims are used to define the scope of protection required for inventions and utility models.
1. Types of claims
According to the nature of the technical solutions protected by the claims, there are two basic types: product claims and method claims.
Product claims are also known as crop claims internationally. The objects of protection are objects (products, equipment) produced by human technology, which include articles, substances, materials, tools, devices, equipment, instruments, components, components, circuits, alloys, coatings, cement, glass, compositions, Any concrete entity produced by human technology such as chemical compounds, pharmaceutical preparations, etc.
Method claims are also known as activity claims internationally. The objects it confers protection are activities that have time process elements. It can be the method of manufacture, method of use, method of communication, method of processing, and method of putting the product to a specific purpose. Although objects, such as materials, equipment, tools, etc., are also involved when executing these method steps, the core is not the innovation or improvement of the objects themselves, but the realization of the solutions to be solved by the method invention through the combination and execution sequence of the method steps. technical issues.
The purpose of distinguishing claims by type is to determine the scope of protection of the claims. Normally, when determining the protection scope of a claim, all features in the claim should be taken into consideration, and the actual limiting effect of each feature should ultimately be reflected in the subject matter claimed in the claim. For example, when one or more technical features in a product claim cannot be clearly characterized by structural features and cannot be clearly characterized by parameter features, it is allowed to be characterized by method features. However, the protected subject matter of the product claims characterized by method features is still the product, and its actual limiting effect depends on the impact on the claimed product itself.
For product claims that contain a use limitation in the subject name, the use limitation should be considered when determining the scope of protection of the product claim, but its actual limiting effect depends on the product being claimed. What kind of impact does it have on itself. For example, in a claim whose subject name is "mold for molten steel casting", the purpose of "used for molten steel casting" has a limiting effect on the subject "mold"; for "a plastic mold box used for ice cube molding", Since the melting point of the ice cube is much lower than the melting point of the molten steel in the "mold for molten steel casting", it cannot be used for molten steel casting, so it is not within the scope of protection of the above claims. However, if the limitation of "used for..." has no impact on the product or equipment to be protected, but only describes the purpose or method of use of the product or equipment, then whether the product or equipment is novel and creative? Judgment doesn't work. For example, "compound X used for...", if "used for..." does not have any impact on compound effect.
It should be noted that according to the provisions of Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the Implementing Rules of the Patent Law: “Inventions” as mentioned in the Patent Law refer to new technical solutions proposed for products, methods or their improvements. Therefore, The object protected by an invention patent can be a product or a method, which means that the claims in an invention patent application can contain both product claims and method claims. According to the provisions of Article 2, Paragraph 2 of the Implementing Rules of the Patent Law: Utility models as mentioned in the Patent Law refer to new technical solutions proposed for the shape, structure or combination of products that are suitable for practical use. It can be seen from this that practical New model patents only protect products, not methods, and they must be products with shape and structure. Therefore, the objects protected by utility model patents are only products with shape and structure. That is to say, the claims of a utility model patent application only Product claims are allowed, but method claims are not allowed.
Paragraph 1 of Article 21 of the Implementing Rules of the Patent Law stipulates that the claims should have independent claims and may also have dependent claims.
In a claim, the independent claim should reflect the technical solution of the invention or utility model as a whole and record the necessary technical features required to solve the technical problem. Necessary technical features refer to the technical features that are indispensable for the invention or utility model to solve its technical problems, and the sum total of which is sufficient to constitute the protection object of the invention or utility model, distinguishing it from other technical solutions described in the background art.
When there are multiple claims in a claim, if one of the claims contains all the technical features of another claim of the same type, and the technical features of the other claim are If the scheme further qualifies the claim, the claim shall be a dependent claim. The dependent claims further define the cited claims with additional technical features. The additional technical features may be technical features that further define the technical features in the cited claims, or they may be added technical features.
Dependent claims may only refer to preceding claims. A claim further defined by a dependent claim may be an independent claim or a dependent claim. That is to say, a dependent claim may refer to an independent claim or may be an added technical feature.
In addition, a dependent claim may cite only one preceding claim, or may cite two or more preceding claims, the latter being called multiple dependent claims.
In the claims of an application, the scope of protection of the subject matter defined by the independent claim is the broadest. Since the dependent claims contain all the technical features of the claims cited by them, and they use additional technical features to further define the claims cited by them, the protection scope of the dependent claims falls within the protection scope of the claims cited by them. .
Article 31, Paragraph 1 of the Patent Law stipulates that an invention or utility model patent application shall be limited to one invention or utility model, and for an invention or utility model, there shall be only one An independent claim may also include multiple dependent claims that directly or indirectly limit the independent claim.
Article 31, Paragraph 1 of the Patent Law also stipulates that two or more inventions or utility models belonging to a general inventive concept can be filed as one application. In this case, there may be two or more independent claims in the claim. The independent claim written earlier is called the first independent claim, and the other independent claims are called concurrent independent claims.