The claims serve as the boundary posts defining what is, and what is not, an encroachment on the inventor's exclusive territory. The law therefore requires that the "specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as his invention." 35 U.S.C. 112(b).
If the claims are so vague or unclear that people in the industry cannot reasonably understand what does or does not infringe the patent, that may have a chilling effect on innovative activity in that technological space, since firms and inventors may give those patent claims a wider berth than what the patent actually covered.
If the claims are so vague or unclear that people in the industry cannot reasonably understand what does or does not infringe the patent, that may have a chilling effect on innovative activity in that technological space, since firms and inventors may give those patent claims a wider berth than what the patent actually covered.
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