IPA patent 5.5.4-claims-construction-and-claim-types — IP Australia Patent Manual of Practice and Procedure – 5.5.4 Claim construction and claim types

Also in this Section: 5.5.1 Purpose of Construction 5.5.2 Considerations Relevant to Construction of the Specification 5.5.3 Rules of Construction for a Specification ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Sub-chapters: 5.5.4.1 The claims are construed as a legal document ; 5.5.4.2 Presumption against redundancy ; 5.5.4.3 Omnibus claims ; 5.5.4.4 Swiss claims ; 5.5.4.5 Product by process claims ; 5.5.4.6 Parametric claims ; 5.5.4.7 ‘For use in’, ‘when used’, and similar wording in claims ; 5.5.4.8 ‘Comprises‘, ‘includes‘, ‘consists of‘, and ‘contains‘ in claims ; 5.5.4.9 Reference numerals in claims ; 5.5.4.10 Relative terms ; 5.5.4.11 ‘Substantially‘, ‘about‘, and ‘generally’ ; and 5.5.4.12 Appended claims . Purpose The purpose of claim construction is to determine the scope of monopoly defined in the claim. Generally, the approach is to first read the claims as a whole and then in respect to each claim: identify the features to which the claim is limited; and understand the meaning and scope of each feature of each claim. The rules of construction of patent specifications (see 5.5.3 Rules of Construction ) also apply to interpreting the scope of claims. Additional rules for construing claims are: the claims are construed as a legal document; there is a presumption against redundancy; and there are special considerations for certain types of claims and types of wording.