Knowledge Acquisition Claim Decomposition

Claim Decomposition

Parses patent claims into their structural components — identifying independent vs. dependent claims, extracting individual elements, and mapping features to technical domains.

Stages

1. Independent Claim Identification

• Identify all independent claims (method, apparatus, system, composition)
• Determine claim category (process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter)
• Extract the preamble, transitional phrase, and body of each independent claim

2. Dependent Claim Tree Construction

• Map dependency relationships (which claims depend on which)
• Build the full claim tree hierarchy
• Identify claim sets (groups of dependents narrowing the same independent)

3. Element Extraction

• Parse each claim into individual elements (limitations)
• Identify structural elements vs. functional elements
• Extract means-plus-function limitations and their corresponding structure

4. Feature Mapping to Technical Domains

• Map extracted elements to technical feature categories
• Identify which elements correspond to known technology components
• Create feature-to-claim mapping for scope analysis

Available SOPs

Execution Guidance

• Always start with independent claims — they define the broadest protection
• Transitional phrases matter: "comprising" (open) vs. "consisting of" (closed)
• Means-plus-function claims (35 USC 112(f)) have narrower scope than they appear
• Method claims and apparatus claims may cover the same invention differently
• Count elements carefully — more elements = narrower claim scope

Yield Report

Report to calling strategy after each execution:

• Number of claims parsed (independent + dependent)
• Total elements extracted
• Claim tree depth (max dependency chain)
• Feature categories identified

Available SOPs

Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.