A Short Guide To Patent Claims

There are a few strategies that you can keep in mind when drafting the claims section of your application. 

These are coherent with the guidelines issued on the USPTO website: 

• Drafting your specifications prior to the claims so that the terms used therein can be included in the claims. This is important since the claim terms must find support in the specification. 
• Be absolutely clear about the legal protection you intend for your invention. this will help you prepare the claim precisely.   
• Conduct a prior-art search to familiarize yourself with the claims in issued patents. 
• Distinctly point out the subject matter of the claim in your application. 
• Guarantee that the dependent claims are further limiting the claim to which they refer.  
• Review some examples of patent claims to understand them better. 
• Claims must not cover multiple statutory classes of invention. The examiner is likely to restrict such a claim thus causing a delay in the patent grant. 
• Stick to using the established standard transitional phrases to avoid confusion.  
• Be consistent with the terms used throughout all sections of the claim. 
• Refrain from using language that may not clearly limit a claim.  
• Always use generic terms when drafting claims rather than trademarks or trade names. 
• Focus entirely on the inventive concept so that the scope of the claim is neither too broad nor too limited. Too general and it may not qualify for a patent, and if it is too specific then it may not be valuable to your business. 
• Proofread the document before submission to remove any unnecessary or redundant claim elements.