What is the “broadest reasonable construction” in patent claims?
The “broadest reasonable construction” is a principle used in patent examination when interpreting patent claims. According to the MPEP Section 2001.05, this principle is applied when establishing a prima facie case of unpatentability:
“A prima facie case of unpatentability is established when the information compels a conclusion that a claim is unpatentable under the preponderance of evidence, burden-of-proof standard, giving each term in the claim its broadest reasonable construction consistent with the specification…”
The “broadest reasonable construction” means that during examination, the patent examiner interprets the claim terms in their broadest reasonable way, as long as it’s consistent with the patent specification. This approach helps ensure that the claimed invention is truly novel and non-obvious by considering a wide range of potential interpretations of the claim language.
It’s important to note that this broad interpretation is used during examination, and may be different from how a court would interpret the claims after the patent is granted.
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