Patent Claims And Their Types

The exclusive rights to the invention or inventive feature/s is defined by the claims of a patent. In simple terms, the claims define the actual area of exclusivity or protected features of an invention or the patent. The claim includes the features or aspects of the invention which the patentee can stop others from making, using and selling without his/her permission. Therefore, in an application for patent, the claims are of paramount importance in patent prosecutions at the Patent Office and in a patent litigation before the courts.

A claim is a statement of novel technical features expressed in terms which define the scope of the invention sought to be protected. As stated above the claims are the defining boundary of a patent, tells third parties what they can and cannot do where the said invention is concerned.