Recent USPTO Guidance On Claim Interpretation Maintains Course

日本語 简体中文 繁體中文 عربي

On March 18, 2024, the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a memorandum to patent examiners related to resources for examining means-plus-function and step-plus-function limitations under 35 U.S.C. § 112(f).¹ The memorandum seeks to remind examiners of resources available when examining limitations under § 112(f), give applicants and the public deeper insight into the interpretation § 112(f), and emphasize the applicants' opportunity to define interpretations in the process of drafting claims and specification. This memorandum also emphasizes the necessity for examiners to create a clear record of the interpretation of the claims.

Using means-plus-function in the claims enables the drafter to claim the functionality of the claim limitation by reciting what the limitation does, rather than what the limitation is. While a common approach is to draft claims in a way that the claim limitations are given a meaning as they would be