Patent Claim Construction: Understanding Markman Hearings And Litigation Strategy

The Claims section of a patent describes the metes and bounds of the patent rights. Each Claim is a single (usually run-on) sentence at the end of the patent. The Claims section of a patent is analogous to a description of land being conveyed in a deed: where Claims define the boundaries of an invention, the land description defines the boundaries of a property.

The name of the game is the Claim.

Patent Claims demarcate the limits of the invention. An infringer infringes a patent by making, selling, importing, using, or offering to sell the invention—as described by the Claims—after the date the patent has issued. Understanding the scope of the Claims, therefore, is vital. However, the technical-legal run-on language of the Claims is difficult to parse. So, who gets to decide what the patent Claims mean and by what process?