Re: Technical patent question

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Jim,

You can have two kinds of claim relationships. You can have
one or more genus claim which has one or more species claim.

What you really have are three claims one independent and
two dependent. The two dependent deal with groups separate
from one another.

Claim 1 : A and B
Claim 2: claim 1, where A is red
Claim 3: claim 1, where A is yellow

Also, you can have multiply dependent claims like but there
are rules that prevent those from being combined in ways
that would cause confusion.

For instance, I think this is OK:

Claim 4: C and D
Claim 5: Claim 1 and Claim 4

But this would not be:
Claim 6: Claim E
Claim 7: Claim 1 and 6 <- OK
Claim 7: Claim 5 and Claim 6 <- A multiple dependent on a
multiple... NO!

Michael
On 5/16/06, Jim wrote:
> 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
>
>