patent claim
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 304 U.S. 364 - General Electric Co. v. Wabash Appliance Corp. · 1938Most cited · 1,034 citing opinions
function of
The inventor must 'inform the public during the life of the patent of the limits of the monopoly asserted, so that it may be known which features may be safely used or manufactured without a license and which may not.' The claims 'measure the invention.
How often courts cite the cases defining “patent claim”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “patent claim” — 1,364 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 2 definitions, chronological · 1938–1944
The claim is the measure of the grant. The claim is required to be specific for the very purpose of protecting the public against extension of the scope of the patent.