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ARTICLE · 12 SEPTEMBER 2023

Lexicography: The Ultimate Superpower

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Harness IP principal Bryan Wheelock examines the sometimes-overlooked tool patent applicants can use to overcome "the inherent limitations of language to describe inventions."

United StatesIntellectual Property
Bryan K. Wheelock
Bryan K. Wheelock

Harness IP principal Bryan Wheelock examines the sometimes-overlooked tool patent applicants can use to overcome "the inherent limitations of language to describe inventions."

"Patent drafters have a superpower. No, we can't fly (at least not without Southwest Airlines), and no, we aren't invisible (except, perhaps, in social situations). The superpower we have is the power of lexicography: the power to redefine words and coin new words," he writes in the latest issue of The Patent Lawyer.

Wheelock, a patent attorney in the firm's St. Louis office, examines several key aspects to consider when devising descriptive language as a patent is drafted. He also outlines a variety of instances when applicants and drafters do – and do not – opt to exercise their "superpower," as well as how various jurisdictions interpret patentees' use of lexicography.

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