Checking claims for errors


ClaimMaster can check claims in a patent document for various issues, such as wrong claim numbering and dependencies, incorrectly defined multiple claims, incorrect status indicators and amendments, presence of "patent profanities," and more. To check claims for errors, perform the following steps:


Getting Started

From the ClaimMaster Ribbon, click on the Individual Proofing Tools menu, then select Check Claims For Errors ->Check Claims for Errors/View Error Reports:



Feature Options

Once you select the feature above, the error browser will come up. It will be placed in the Word custom task pane or "docked" to the right side of your Word document when it launches, unless automatic docking of dialogs is disabled in ClaimMaster's Preferences. The following operations are available in the error browser dialog:



    1. Click on the "Re-check document" button to rerun the claims check.  This could be done, for example, after making edits to the document to correct the issues. Clicking this button will re-run the reports with the same options as originally selected.
    2. You can also quickly export the identified issued to HTML, PDF, or Word formats by clicking on any of the above buttons.  Clicking on these buttons will not re-run the proofreading check, so the report generation will be fast. 
    3. Errors and warnings will be shown for each claim. Each message is clickable. By clicking on the message, you will expand it to show all claims that have the same problem. You can then click on individual claims and, where possible, the sections of text with errors will be selected directly in the open document. ClaimMaster has several different types of error messages: 
      • Errors – these messages indicate serious errors in the claims, such as invalid dependencies or wrong status indicators
      • Syntax Warnings – these messages are less serious and indicate potential problems with syntax, such as a class mismatch between a parent and its child claim.
      • Style Warnings - these messages indicate potential problems with claim language, such as the use of potentially limiting or indefinite words.


    1. This window provides explanations/suggestions for fixing the reported problems. In addition, any errors associated with the claim/documents rules will be shown in this window. 
    2. Use these check-boxes to filter the results based on the types of errors/messages you'd like to view in the reports browser.
    3. If "Highlight selected issues" is selected, then all portions of the shown problems will be highlighted in the document.  Note that once you close this window, all added highlighting in the document will be removed.  
    4. Use “Configure Rules…” dialog to specify which rules you want to run on your claims. In addition, you can use this dialog to edit or specify new rules. For more information, see configuring rules.