Construction of Patent Claims Using Axiomatic Design

Abstract

Patent claims play an important role in every patent case and it is the core for evaluation of infringement, validity or originality. There are two main types of claims: the independent claims (stand on their own), and the dependent claims (depending on a single/several claim/claims). Axiomatic design is a design theory that is based on the axioms. The axiomatic design theory makes use of corollaries and theorems which guide/help designers mapping functional domain to physical domain. The relation between functional requirements and design parameters is assured by so called design matrix. In an ideal design the number of design parameters is equal to the number of functional requirements, and the functional requirements are always kept independent from each other. When there are more design parameters than functional requirements, the design is a redundant design. A coupled design can became decoupled by selecting different set of design parameters. The idea of construction of patent claims using Axiomatic Design is based on the assumption of independent claims as a part of an ideal design and dependent claims as a part of a decoupled design.