RE: [PIUG List] Compositional Range

Roger,

 

There is no international standard for interpretation of compositional
ranges or anything else in patent claims.

 

The applicant is supposed to define all the terms of the claims in the
patent disclosure and those definitions apply to the claims. If there
is no definition in the patent, the meaning is whatever a person of
skill in the art would understand.

 

Final interpretation of patent claims is only made if the patent is
involved in a lawsuit where the limitations of the claim language are a
factor in deciding whether infringement has occurred. In that case the
Court makes the determination.

 

In fact, people who draft patent applications often write something like
"a metal alloy containing about 0.5-3.0% of bismuth," to keep a Court
from finding noninfringement by a composition containing 0.455%." And
then the Court will have to decide whether that's covered.

 

Edlyn Simmons

 

________________________________

From: Roger Bilham [mailto:rbc.bilham_at_ntlworld.com]
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 7:48 AM
To: PIUG Discussion List @ Listbox
Subject: [PIUG List] Compositional Range

 

Dear List Members,

I am a scientist but not a patent specialist and would like to know the
meaning of compositional range in a patent claim. An example would be a
metal alloy containing 0.5-3.0% of bismuth.

There is an international standard providing protocols on the rounding
of numbers, which, as a scientist, I would expect to be valid. However,
I have found out that, in the field of products sold to the public,
minimum 0.5litres means at least 0.5 followed by an infinite number of
noughts. Can you please tell me which convention applied to patents?

Returning to the example above, would an alloy containing 0.455% bismuth
fall within the range 0.5-3.0% bismuth?

Best regards,
Roger Bilham

________________________________

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Received on Mon Sep 15 2008 - 17:15:31