Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[R. Reed PE]

Q-1:  Do the antecedents in a parent claim apply to the claims depending from it?

Q-2:  Do the rules for antecedents apply to any part of the Specifications?

This should be an easy one.  But, thank a lot anyway for a little help.   

[DogDayPM 9er9er9er]

A1.  If I understand the question to be, does the introduction of an item in the independent claim satisfy antecedent basis for reciting "the item" in dependent claims, the answer is yes. 
Example, independent claim 1: "A doghouse comprising 4 walls and a roof, at least one wall having an opening."  Dependent claim 6:  "The doghouse of claim 1 wherein the roof has shingles thereon, and further wherein the opening is configured to admit passage of chickens, mice, dogs, cats, small children, and disobedient husbands".  (I.e., you don't have to re-introduce "roof", "opening" in your dependent claim.)

A2.  Not that I have ever seen.  In a strict sense, though, if in your specification you start off reciting "the ______" without having previously introduced the idea that a ________ exists, it's not going to read very well and could be confusing.  Except for cases where the item ________ would be understood by the skilled person to be implicitly present in the situation. 

I claims, I normally go through the routine of making that first introduction of all items even if I feel they are implicitly present, just to avoid having to argue with the examiner.

[R. Reed PE]

Many thanks to a DogDayPM.