2009年3月13日 星期五

About Claims XVIII

同不同意Claim中加入「量」的限制?

同不同意Claim中加入「量」的限制,包括尺寸、溫度、比較等?
主觀上,可能加入這些「量」的限制的權利範圍就是表達此範圍與習知技術「差異不大」

而這些限制也是有字意解釋上的問題,比如,權利範圍包括酸鹼值6,是否有包括5或是5.8,答案是「沒有」,因為字意(literally)上不滿足!
卻可以在PH 6之前加入一些模糊的形容詞或副詞,如substantially, approximately

可以定義出兩個或是以上的限制的字則不是模糊的字,如:at least, at most, more than, less than, over, under等,因為這些字眼有限定「邊界」,但是也可因為套上模糊的描述,變成模糊的邊界,也就是這些word of approximation與non-word of approximation也可組合,如substantially at least...

有些看似能讓權利範圍較廣的字眼,其實都可能導致不明確的問題,所以原則上,以上的模糊字眼都應該在說明書內文說明清楚,或是讓熟悉該項技術者能夠明白,使用上才不會有問題

雖然難以想像substantially與at least的結合要如何解釋,仍可由範例來想像
舉個例子:
US7,463,157
16. Method according to claim 14, wherein detecting the head movement reaction includes at least one of the following measures and evaluations: pre-defining a threshold value for the disturbance signal and evaluating head movement reactions if the disturbance exceeds the threshold value; evaluating head movements if the vehicle is travelling substantially in a straight direction for substantially at least one of a predefined period of time and above a predefined speed threshold value; and ignoring head movements if the vehicle is not travelling substantially in a straight direction for substantially the at least one of the predefined period of time and at above the predefined speed threshold value.

參考資料:Landis on Mechanics of Patent Claim Drafting
Ron

沒有留言: