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ARTICLE · 08 OCTOBER 2010

Patent Claims: One Word Can Make the Difference

Madderns
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Patent claims drafted by patent attorneys can sometimes be difficult to read, but there is good reason. Every word put in (or left out of) a patent claim can have a significant legal impact. A recent US court decision highlights just how important it is to get the wording right.

AustraliaIntellectual Property
Stephen Worthley
Stephen Worthley
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Patent claims drafted by patent attorneys can sometimes be difficult to read, but there is good reason. Every word put in (or left out of) a patent claim can have a significant legal impact. A recent US court decision highlights just how important it is to get the wording right.

A particular patent claim in Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) v. ATI Techologies, Inc Nos. 08-1334, -1353 (Fed. Cir. June 4, 2010) defined a computer system having a component utilising "a rasterization process which operates on a floating point format" ('floating point' is a particular way of representing numbers in a computer). The infringement decision in this case turned on the interpretation of the word 'a'.

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