Posted by Jim on 5/16/06

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I am a poor, dumb enginner attempting to assess how a
recently issued patent impacts a device I am about to
produce.

The patent that I am looking at contains an independent
claim and a bunch of dependent (and mulitply-dependent)
claims. In my simple engineer mind, dependent claims may
refine the 'root' claim, but may not alter it. Stated
another way, dependent claims describe devices that are a
subset of the devices described in the independent claim.
Is that true?

An example:

Claim 1: The device comprises: a dog; said dog being black,
and a bird.

Claim 2: The apparatus according Claim 1, wherein the dog
is a yellow Lab.

Does the fact that a patent was issued with claim 2 intact
make a yellow dog black? Is claim 2 enforceable, since it
is impossible to build a device satisfying all of the
requirements of claim 2?

I have this situation before me. I wait eagerly for some
legal enlightenment. Thanks.

Jim

Re: Technical patent question, 6/27/06, by Michael.

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