As IP professionals, we know that claims are absolutely vital. They define the scope of protection, and we must be extremely precise (to achieve exactly the right level of vagueness). That is excellent from a legal perspective, but clients commonly have a hard time understanding the true scope of the claims. As a consequence, they all too often rely on half-knowledge for their decision-making.
We, as professionals, need to help them grasp the true scope of protection. The practical question is how we can make that scope clear without losing accuracy.
We can help clients by providing, for every communication, a short summary in their terminology together with an informative image. Use the name or product type, followed by the key limiting features expressed in concrete terms. You translate legalese into language your client understands.
Use "Roller coaster", not "Toy vehicle configured for running on rails", and leave out "flexible flanges being flexible in a direction away from each other", etc.
When this condensed claim is combined with the right, simple diagram, everyone instantly understands the true scope of the patent. Take a look, for example, at the summary and image above this blog post. Now you understand the scope of US10918962B2.
In Patent Cockpit, this combination of a short but accurate summary and an informative image is used throughout — see the Understanding the scope of protection feature — so that everyone in the organization, regardless of background or experience, can understand exactly what is protected and thus make the right decisions. Want to learn more? Book a call!
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