Minneapolis Patent Law Blog

The legal trade features an expansive glossary of terms. There are so many that are so confusing that it suggests Winston Churchill's quote, "It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." In patent law, the term "claim construction" is one that is enigmatic, and because it is making headlines, it may be worth looking at a little more deeply.

What made recent news is the appearance in the Federal Register of a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office final rule announcing that it is, "changing the claim construction standard applied during inter partes review (IPR), post-grant review (PGR), and the transitional program for covered business method patents (CBM) proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)." What does this mean?

If you ever stray into a conference of patent attorneys, you might feel you just walked into a bar on an alien planet. Conversations don't seem to be taking place in English. The seemingly incomprehensible language of the patent world is something that has developed over the course of decades, driven by the demands of the practice.

IP law, like all law, is complex. But it is also highly detailed. Besides myriad laws, there are IP-specific rules and doctrines developed over many years. Along with that, a tangled bureaucracy has developed for IP administration. And then there are the various legal venues for handling legal claims. To keep track of the past and developing trends, and maintain a strategic edge in securing and enforcing inventors' rights, those skilled in IP protection have their own jargon.

Creative expression is a unique feature of what it means to be human and government recognizes the value that expression delivers to society through intellectual property law. Obtaining a copyright from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is clear recognition of a work's originality and that the holder has the right to derive the monetary benefit from that work.

Registering your work and maximizing protection of your interests depends on meeting the requirements set by the USPTO, including:

Do you know who Walter Hagen is? He was a professional golfer prominent in the first half of the last century. He was so good that he ranks third in the world for the number of men's major championship wins. Jack Nicklaus is first. Tiger Woods is second. That's ironic because Hagen is also the guy credited with saying, "No one remembers who came in second."

We are picking up on this fact because it has application in the context of the important facet of intellectual property law dealing with trademark protection. To learn more, read on.