Claims

A claim constitutes a sentence that delimits the subject matter, scope the extent of protection of the patent. The claims are supported by the description, which explains their content, so that a person skilled in the art can perform and reproduce their teaching. On filing, the patent application may not include claims, subject to subsequent regularization.

In other words, it's a question of defining the limits of what is protected by the patent, of defining which elements of the invention are new and non-obvious in relation to the state of the art, and which are therefore susceptible to patent protection.

Two categories are to be distinguished : independent claims and dependent claims. The former can be understood without reference to another claim, while the latter depend on one or more independent claims.

An action for patent infringement and aaction for patent cancellation can only target a single claim. It is up to the patent attorney to determine precisely which claims are infringed or invalid.