Identifying claim terms/words lacking specification support


ClaimMaster can determine whether any terms or words used in claims are not explicitly supported in the specification (i.e., all document sections other than claims). For example, if the claim recites “a widget device,” ClaimMaster will search the specification of the patent document and determine whether this term appears in the specification.  ClaimMaster can determine claim support using the same document (i.e., when checking the original application), using a separate document (i.e., when checking amendments in the OA response against the original application document).  If you provide a published application number, ClaimMaster can also automatically download and check claims for support against the specification downloaded from the USPTO.



Getting Started

To check claim terms for support in the specification, perform the following steps:


  • From the ClaimMaster Ribbon, click on the Individual Proofing Tools menu, then select Find Support for Claim Terms in the Specification:





Feature Options

Once you start this feature, a window will appear showing the following options for checking your document for claim term/word support:



    1. If this checkbox is selected, ClaimMaster will check your document for support of the terms listed in the text window below.
    2. This text window is automatically populated with all terms/phrases identified in claims. You can edit, add, or remove terms directly in the window.
    3. If this checkbox is selected, ClaimMaster will check your document for support of the words listed in the text window below.
    4. This text window is automatically populated with all individual words identified in claims. You can edit, add, or remove words directly in the window.
    5. Check this box if you want to to identify the surrounding citations where the supported terms/words appear in the specification.  Note that searching for support may take a little more time to process. 
    6. Here you can specify the location of a separate specification document, such as the originally filed application. It can also be the a serial # of the published US patent application (e.g., 16000005). If empty, the currently open document will be used during searching. You can also press "Import app # .."  button to import application # from the open Word document - this is useful when checking amendments in the OA response, which will contain the serial application # in the header.
    7. Press check button to start searching for support of the specified claim terms/words in the document. ClaimMaster will search for all sections of the document excluding the claims section.  Once the search completes, the following window will be shown ("Errors" tab will be shown by default):



    1. Click on the "Re-check document" button to rerun the support 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. Claim terms or words with missing support will be shown in this window. You can click on individual terms/words to have them selected in claims.
    4. If you chose to identify specification support for claim terms/words, then this section with list all sentences where support has been found in the specification (other than claims). You can click on individual elements have the full sentence listed in the window below (item 12).
    5. This window will show the full text of a specific citation where support for a particular term/word has been located. The specific term/word will be capitalized.
    6. Use these checkboxes to show/hide terms with missing or present specification support.
    7. If "Highlight selected issues in claims" is selected, then all identified terms will be highlighted in the claims.  Terms/words without support will be highlighted in red, terms with minimal support (1-4 occurrences) will be highlighted in orange, and terms with sufficient support (5+ hits) will be highlighted in green. Note that once you close this window, all added highlighting in the document will be removed.


In addition to the "Errors" tab, you can also switch to the "Term Browser" tab, which lets you browse all terms identified in the claims.