Thursday, January 8, 2009

The standard caveat

In each patent application there must be a standard caveat for any potential competitors, infringers and licensees. In the Specification section of the patent application, the start of the technical narration is headed with this (typical) paragraph: Before explaining the disclosed embodiment of the present invention in detail it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of the particular arrangement shown since the invention is capable of other embodiments. Also, the terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.

and finalized with this caveat:

While the invention has been described, disclosed, illustrated and shown in various terms of certain embodiments or modifications which it has presumed in practice, the scope of the invention is not intended to be, nor should it be deemed to be, limited thereby and such other modifications or embodiments as may be suggested by the teachings herein are particularly reserved especially as they fall within the breadth and scope of the claims here appended.

Some applications that have details drawings, or where drawings are a crucial piece of the application, might also mention drawings in a way that almost sneaks up on you. I don;t have a good example of these.

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