Claim Interpretation: What the word “a” or “an” means in a claim
I find that many people are surprised to find out the meaning of the indefinite article “a” or “an”. When used in a patent claim after the term “comprising”, it means “one or more” and not just “one”. The article “a” is interpreted to mean “one” only in rare circumstances when it is very clear that the patentee means only one.
For example, if a claim recites: “A vector comprising a gene of interest….” then the vector may contain one or more genes of interest.
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on July 6th, 2005 at 10:12 pm
Dear Sir,
Your words are very interesting to me. I am working in a chinese translation firm. Our firm focus on patent translation. “A/an” is a big problem in English patent tranlation, because there is no indefinite article in chinese. Would you kind enough to recommend me some cases or articles on the matter? Thank you.
Best wishes
Yvonne Zhuang (Ms.)
Patent Consultant
SUNYU TRANSLATION CO. LTD
B-704, Investment Plaza, Financial St. Xicheng Dirst.
Beijing, P. R. of China (100032 )
Tel: +86 10 6621 8251
Fax: +86 10 6621 8252
Website: http://www.sunyu.com
Email: yvonnequ@vip.sina.com, yvonnezhuang@sunyu.com
on August 4th, 2005 at 3:47 am
I disagree with this assessment. “A” and “an” mean “one.” What it does not mean is “only one.” The reason that the claim may be interpreted as meaning “one or more” is because all higher numbers are inclusive of lower ones. If you have two of something, then you must already have one. For example, if you have two books and I ask you if you have “a” book, your answer will be yes.