{"id":1641,"date":"2017-07-14T08:18:21","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T12:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=1641"},"modified":"2017-07-14T08:18:21","modified_gmt":"2017-07-14T12:18:21","slug":"bri-proof-your-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=1641","title":{"rendered":"BRI-Proof Your Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are many benefits to employing means + function claiming under 35 USC\u00a0\u00a7112(f) and the Federal Circuit recently pointed out a new one: protecting your claims from the application by the Broadest Reasonable Interpretation (BRI) claim construction paradigm employed by USPTO in reexaminations. reissues, PGRs, IPRs and CBMRs. In\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cafc.uscourts.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/opinions-orders\/16-1474.Opinion.7-6-2017.1.PDF\">IPCOM GmbH &amp; Co. v. HRC Corp.<\/a>, [2016-1474] (July 7, 2017), previously discussed <a href=\"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=1632\">here<\/a>, the Federal Circuit said that\u00a0the PTO\u00a0may not disregard the structure disclosed in the specification\u00a0corresponding to means + function elements when rendering a\u00a0patentability determination.<\/p>\n<p>Thus including some means + function claims in a claim set may prevent the Patent Office from using BRI to stretch an otherwise valid claim to the point of invalidity. \u00a0Of course there are other benefits from means + function claiming, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It allows &#8220;gerrymandering&#8221; of claim scope through selectively \u00a0including or excluding corresponding structures in the specification.<\/li>\n<li>It helps avoid problems with the disclosure\/dedication doctrine, where disclosed but unclaimed subject matter cannot be covered by the doctrine of equivalents, and is dedicated to the public.<\/li>\n<li>When claims are amended using means + function elements, statutory equivalents under\u00a0\u00a7112(f) are available, even if prosecution history estoppel bars the doctrine of equivalents.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All of which suggest that means + function elements can be a valuable tool for getting the maximum claim scope.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are many benefits to employing means + function claiming under 35 USC\u00a0\u00a7112(f) and the Federal Circuit recently pointed out a new one: protecting your claims from the application by the Broadest Reasonable Interpretation (BRI) claim construction paradigm employed by &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=1641\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1641"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1648,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641\/revisions\/1648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}