Rules Of Interpretation Of The Patent Claims

Patent protection is different with the visible, the scope of protection of patent can not be sensed directly, the scope of protection of patent must be determined firstly, so the modern patent system design the patent claim. The words in the patent claim describe the scope of patent protection, but the words have more meaning, and for the words of expressing sometimes do not match technical means one to one, there is a need to interpret patent claim to clarify the scope of the patent rights.The interpretation of the patent claim is a course that a court understands the words of the patent claim, determines true meaning of the words of them when patent dispute is come up. It's objects are several legal documents which are formed in the course of application and reviewing of patent:the patent claim letter, the patent specification, the attached graph, the statement of patent reviewing and related information, their role is different. Under the influence of the ideology of the balance of interests, the interpretation of patent claim demands not only to determine clearly the scope of patent protection, to enhance the clarity and predictability, to reduce the cost of patent transactions, but also to balance the interests between the patentee and the public, to achieve the objective of the patent system.The contemporary research of the claims interpretation in our country inadequate and this paper tries to conduct research on methods of claims interpretation based on foreign advanced legislative and trial experience.The first part starts with the general rule of the interpretation of patent claims. The interpretation of patent claims explain the words of them at first:it means reading the words of the patent claim directly, referring internal evidence such as the patent specification, the attached graph and other reviewed files, determining the true meaning of its words of the patent claim, and external evidence such as expert witness, dictionaries and science and technology academic articles can drawn on when the meaning of the words is still not clearly. PartⅡand PartⅢdiscuss how to interpret the claims to determine the scope of patent protection when means-plus-function claims and product-by-process claims occurred, and also raise the comments on interpretation with regards to patent claims and legislation suggestions in our country.