Chemical and materials related inventions lend themselves to
being defined in terms of their physical structures and
experimentally measurable properties. Inventions directed to porous
membranes, for example, which are used to separate components of a
mixture, can be readily characterized by the pore size and pore
distribution of the membrane material. For other inventions, such
as those employing bulk metallic glass materials, which have
disordered atomic arrangement, a measurable property or combination
of measurable properties such as yield strength, hardness and
elasticity may be the most suitable way – and perhaps the
only way – of defining the invention.
From a European patent law perspective, defining an invention in
terms of such parameters in a patent application, particularly in
the claims, merits careful consideration. A poorly defined
parameter is at best likely to cause problems during examination of
a patent application, and at worst could have
