Barriers to Imitation ◾ 105
Patent Claims
The claims of a patent are somewhat like the legal description in a deed
because they describe the limits of the property. The claim or claims must
particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter that is regarded
as the invention. The claims define the scope of the protection of the pat-
ent. Claims are arranged by the structural description of the elements of the
invention. For example, a chair can be claimed as having a flat base and
three legs supporting the flat base. So in this case, the chair has four ele-
ments (three legs plus a base), with the further refined description that the
base is supported by the three legs. So this claim will cover all chairs having
a flat base and at least ...