xi2pi / patent-claim-dependency

Dependency analysis of patent claims

Patent claim dependecy

Patent claims that refer back to and further limit another claim are called dependent claims. Each claim usually contains a set of features.

Example

Let us take the following example of patent claims:

• claim 1
• claim 2 -- depending on claim 1
• claim 3 -- depending on claim 1 or 2
• claim 4 -- depending on claim 1
• claim 5 -- depending on claim 2
• claim 6 -- depending on one of claims 1 to 5
• claim 7 -- depending on claim 2 or 5
• claim 8 -- depending on claim 3 or 4

where claim 2 to 8 are dependet claims of claim 1.

And let us say, claim 2 defines feature A.

Question: Which claim may refer to feature A of claim 2?

Solution:

• claim 1: Feature A is first defined in claim 2 - No
• claim 2: Definition of feature A - Yes
• claim 3: Refers to claim 1 and claim 2. Claim 1 does not disclose feature A. A combination of claim 1 and claim 3 would not contain feature A. Therefore claim 3 cannot refer to feaure A of claim 2 as a definitely existing feature - No
• claim 4: Refers to claim 1 only - No
• claim 5: Refers to claim 2 only - Yes
• claim 6: Refers to claims 1 to 5; some claims do not disclose the feature A - No
• claim 7: Refers to claim 2 and 5; claim 5 refers to claim 2 only - Yes
• claim 8: Refers to claim 3 and 4; both claims do not contain feature A - No

Aim

In this small project, I would like to tackle questions like the one above. Also, some Python code is provided, which might help to solve these issues.

Coding

Let us take a look again at the example above and use some code to get an answer to the stated question of dependency.

Defining the dependency

Following lines define the dependency of the claims:

claim = [[1], [1], [1,2], [1], [2], [1,2,3,4,5], [2,5], [3,4]]

Claim 1 ("[1]") only depends on itself. Claim 2 ("[1]") depends on claim 1. Claim 3 ("[1,2]") depends on claim 1 and 2. And so on.

Now, the claim containing the definition of feature A has to be defined:

claim_containing_definition = 2

Claim 2 defines the feature A.

Function dependency_check()

Put this in the function "dependency_check()":

dependency_check(claim, claim_containing_definition)

Output:

[False, True, False, False, True, False, True, False]

The output list gives the same results as explained above, saying which claim may refer to feature A:

• claim 1: False - No
• claim 2: True - Yes
• claim 3: False - No
• claim 4: False - No
• claim 5: True - Yes
• claim 6: False - No
• claim 7: True - Yes
• claim 8: False - No