ClaimMaster has a patent application drafting tool that lets you quickly clone method claims into other statutory claim types, such as device or computer-readable medium (CRM) . The conversion process uses natural language processing (NLP) techniques, but is highly customizable based on user-defined templates for patent claim cloning and flexible claim numbering/selection schemes.
You can take a look at the demo of the claim cloning in the video below:
To convert existing method claims to other claim type(s), perform the following steps:
- Open Claim Cloning Menu
From the ClaimMaster tab, click on the Patent Drafting Tools menu, then click on Clone Method Claims into Other Claim Types:
- Select One or More Base Claims
Select one or more claims to convert to another claim type, such as device/apparatus, system, or CRM. If you click at the top “Claims” node of the claim tree, you’ll be able to select/unselect all available claims for conversion. To help with the claim selection, if you hover over any claim number in the claim tree, you will be able to review the text of the claim in the small tooltip window that appears below the claim number.
In addition, if you’ve made any changes to the claims while this drafting window is open, click on the “Reload claims” button to re-parse the claims in the open Word document.
- Select Patent Claim Cloning Template(s) and Preview the Generated Claims Section
Next, select one or more claim cloning templates. You can select multiple templates at the same time by holding the Ctrl key and clicking on the items in the list with a mouse or pressing Enter. Each template can correspond to a statutory claim type, such as “device”, “system,” or “CRM”. Each selected template will generate a separate set of cloned claims based on the specified method claims.
The sequential order of selected templates in the list will control how the cloned claims are numbered. The numbering of the 1st claim in the generated set will start at the specified “starting claim number and continue till the last claim in the cloned set.
Note – “[Selected Method Claims]” is a special placeholder if you want to add the selected method claims into the cloned claims set, but typically not in beginning. If it is selected, the selected method claims will be added to the cloned set and numbered according to their position in the templates list and the first starting claim # for the cloned set.
In addition, you can use these arrows to adjust the order of templates in the list (select one of the templates and press “up” or “down” arrows to move it up/down the list. The order of templates will affect claim numbering – each selected template will generate a set of cloned claims (based on the method claims selected in in the claim tree) and these claims will be numbered sequentially, starting from the specified “starting claim number” and then continuing to the end of the cloned claim set. The total number of cloned claims will be shown in above the preview window.
For more information on adjusting patent claim cloning settings, please click here.
- Insert the Cloned Claims
Once you are satisfied with the preview of the cloned claims section, proceed to insert the generated claim set into the document. You’ll do this by clicking the Insert Claims button. Prior to insertion, you can also specify whether to insert the generated claims into the currently open document (at the current cursor location) or into a new document.
After you insert the generated claims into the document, you can either close the patent claim cloning tool or click on the Next Steps button to proceed inserting other sections into the application shell using the built-in workflow.
For more information on this feature, check out the Online Manual.