Ideally, claims should be drafted in such a way that all steps required in the claim can be performed single party or entity.
Otherwise, you wind up with a patent claim that no one in the world could directly infringe. For direct infringement, an infringer has to perform all steps (or their substantial equivalents under the doctrine of equivalents) contained within a patent claim.
Suppose you have a claim requiring 5 steps -- and Party A performs the first and the third step only, while Party B performs the second, fourth, and fifth steps. In this case, neither of these parties would directly infringe this patent claim.
You would then have to proceed under a theory of indirect infringement (i.e., induced infringement, contributory infringement) in order to prevail. These legal theories are both usually much more difficult to prove then a case involving direct infringement.
Otherwise, you wind up with a patent claim that no one in the world could directly infringe. For direct infringement, an infringer has to perform all steps (or their substantial equivalents under the doctrine of equivalents) contained within a patent claim.
Suppose you have a claim requiring 5 steps -- and Party A performs the first and the third step only, while Party B performs the second, fourth, and fifth steps. In this case, neither of these parties would directly infringe this patent claim.
You would then have to proceed under a theory of indirect infringement (i.e., induced infringement, contributory infringement) in order to prevail. These legal theories are both usually much more difficult to prove then a case involving direct infringement.
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