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Function instead of structure, is a problem | 1347 comments | Create New Account

Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.

Function instead of structure, is a problem

Authored by: PolR on Thursday, June 14 2012 @ 11:12 AM EDT

I am talking about the claim, not the whole patent. The teachings may be found
in the part of the patent which isn't the claim.

I am not advocating functional claiming. I am just explaining what I have
learned about it. And I may have learned it wrong.

It appears that the courts are aware of the issue you mention. There is a series
of legal tests a functional claim must pass to ensure the problem doesn't
happen. A patent attorney who uses functional claiming takes the risk his claim
doesn't pass muster and get invalidated. I make no judgment on how good
functional claiming is because I really don't know about that, but I suspect
things are not as bad as you say.

On the other hand when software is involved the disconnect between how court
understand computer and reality mess things up. I suspect that this is why the
problem you mention happens routinely in software despite the legal safeguards.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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