Independent claims

To avoid legal glitches when claiming compounds, claim important compounds individually in independent claims. It costs more up front, but helps avoid expensive and potentially catastrophic patent defeating legal glitches later. If you do use dependent claims, make them all dependent on a broad, independent Claim 1. 

A compound having the structure of formula I (independent claim) ... 

In this example claim set, claim 1 is independent since it does not depend from any other claim—the claim stands alone. In contrast, you can see that the claims 2 and 3 are each dependent, they incorporate the terms of another claim and then provide further limitation to the claim that they are dependent from. Whereas independent claim 1 allows selecting a compound with a possibility of 3 different groups at X, dependant claim 2 allows only one (hydrogen) so dependent claim 2 is narrower than claim 1 that it depends from. Finally, claim 3 depends from claim 2, meaning that it incorporates all of the definitions from claim 2 and then provides a further limitation. As a result, the compound of claim 3 will have the compound of formula I as defined in claim 1 except that X and Y are both set to hydrogen. 

The claim set can be drafted to avoid this difficulty by redrafting claim 2 as an independent claim and providing die desired Markush definition for X. 

You may ask, Why bother to include dependent claims in the first place If someone is infringing a dependent claim she will also be infringing the independent claim from which it is derived. There are at least a few practical reasons. First, it is often easier for someone in the future to try to have your broadest claims declared invalid for a lack of novelty or for being obvious broader claims are more likely to read on the prior art because they occupy more turf. Second, it is generally harder to enable one to make and use a broader claim because a patent claim needs to be enabled throughout its... 

A U.S. patent has been issued covering nonnatural antisense structures in a combinatorial library format that claims the combinatorial library itself in an independent claim [89], The consequences of this type of claim and/or the likelihood this type of claim will be granted for heterocyclic libraries are unknown at this time. 

Attempts to produce large particles with narrow bead distribution ranges have been suggested. In a patent [72], the application of hydrodynamic conditions is described, using tall reactors with volumes > 60 m3 to achieve a standard deviation of particle size distributions of < 25 %. An independent claim is included for a hydrodynamic system, where the ratios of stirrer diameter to... 

Second-order reactions in this region have been reported by a number of other authors -and also in more strongly alkaline solution - . Whether the reaction under the latter conditions has rates dependent on alkalinity has been contested. The earlier independence claimed may be an accident arising from the particular experimental temperature (50 °C) used. In any case, the rate in alkaline solutions is much greater than would be predicted from results near neutrality. A different mechanism is doubtless operative. The following rate parameters are reported ... 

It is possible to have several independent claims in a European patent application. This is in particular permitted in order to claim certain permutations of what are termed as different categories. 

The claims are critically important. They require careful drafting, preferably by highly qualified and experienced patent counsel, to cover the invention as broadly and comprehensively as appropriate. Normally the claims should be drafted as broadly as the prior art and the specification allow. Allowable claim scope will, of course, depend in large part on the state of the art. Inventions in a crowded art (i.e., technology with a relatively large amount of closely related prior art) can generally only be claimed relatively narrowly. Inventions for which there is relatively little prior art can be claimed more broadly. Generally, one attempts to draft one or more independent claims that describe the invention as broadly as the prior art will allow and then narrower, dependent claims specific to pre-... 

Claims that are carved out of other claims, like 2 and 3 above, are called dependent claims, while in this example 1 is an independent claim. An unlimited number of either used to be allowed in US patent applications, but very recently a limit of no more than five independent claims or 25 total claims per application (unless an Examination Support Document is filed) was supposed to be put into effect, but a lawsuit by GSK has currently put this on hold. ... 

The aim of the PRA is to identify those events or influences, which exist outside of the system (or item) concerned, but may generate hazards or violate system independence claims. 

Event Independence Upon completion of the ZSA, the assessor needs to verify that the design meets any event independence claims made in other parts of the safety assessment (snch as in the FTA). 

Using the developed (IPDSS— http //wheeljet.com.tw), the target patent number is set as TP(xi) and xi = US5714247 to download the document from USPTO. The extracted patent metadata is stored in the IPDSS s data-base as MD(xi). The developed system automatically analyzes 19 claims of the target patent which contain 3 independent claims as lC(xi) and 16 dependent claims as DC(xi) to help R D engineer to interpret the scope of the intellectual property. Afterward, the system analyzes the structure of the independent claims by identifying the preamble. 

The data of POE contains metadata MD(xi), independent claims lC(xi), de-pendent claims DC(xi), claim components CC(xi), component synonyms CS (xi), and key phrases KP(xi). The Microsoft Office Visio tool is used to build the patent ontology and is translated into standard XML in the IPDSS to analyze the patent context. The IPDSS then identifies potential patent infringement and evaluates patent validity. 

AB STRACT The paper reviews the basic principles, technical implementation of the hyperbolic tree, and its shortcomings in apphcation of patent analysis. And then, the paper designs and realizes three applications of the hyperbohc tree to visualize the patent data for improving the data utilization efficiency of the patent citations, patent families and patent claims. For the patent citation visualization, the user-concerned patent citations are added into the h)q)erbolic tree for display based on the users demands, and the tree hierarchy is not limited, which expends the applications of the hyperbolic tree in the patent citations. For the patent family visualization, the priority node and state mode are estabhshed, so that his users could quickly and easily access where the patent being does anal d have the family, what is the priority date, and which country the patent is from . For the patent claim visualization, the independent claims and the dependent claims are merged into the hyperbohc tree, thus the users could easily understand the contents of the independent claims and the dependent claims, and their dependencies. 

Generally, the patent claim comprises a plurality of sub-claims, and these sub-claims are subdivided into independent claims and dependent claims, which are different in language description and content component. Meanwhile, the independent claim is closely related with the dependent... 

For the patents, a single independent claim and its dependent claims form a tree structure further, multiple independent elaims and their respective dependent claims form a number of tree structure collections. These tree structure collections use the patent being analyzed as the root node and are converted into a new and independent tree structure with a variety of data nodes and good fit with hyperbolic tree visualization. Therefore, the paper designs another new application of the hyperbolic tree-Patent claims hyperbolic tree. 

The hyperbolic tree form of the patent claims is shown in Figure 6. Firstly, the patent application number and authorization number are used as the root nodes and placed in the center of the screen, and all the independent claims are in the hierarchy closest to the root node the dependent claims under the same independent claims are sorted according to the serial number to form the second hierarchy branch structure the sub-dependent claims under the same dependent claims are further... 

The claims, which are numbered, are the main goal of the patent and the only parts which can be changed once the patent has been filed. The claims are classified as independent claims (limit of 3 - more cost extra) which stand alone, and dependent claims which refer to a previous claim. Extra claims (over 20 in all) add to the cost of the filing fee. Each country has different requirements concerning dependent and independent claims. If one or more of your claims are allowed by the examiner then the patent will be granted. 

The first claim should cover the complete invention being broad and encompassing. Two or three independent claims are usually sufficient if supplemented by several dependent claims. These allow for variation in one or more of the parameters or components of the invention to be claimed. 

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