Patent Claims

Ongoing Dilemma When Writing Patent Claims: Semiconductor patent expert views claim construction as translating concepts origionally described in schematic drawings into a form of legal English. The irony is that the patent (in particular the claims) is to teach one of ordinary skill in the art how to make the patented product. So, what you have is a patent attorney translating the drawings into a verbal description in order to teach one that is most familiar with the sketches. The solution is to have references to the drawings in the construction of the claims. That way the origional ideas of the inventor are preserved. After all, a picture is “worth a thousand words”.