Improver Purposive Approach

Improver Purposive Approach
A SelectSmart.com Flowchart by limweiren
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1. Does the variant have a material effect upon the way the invention works?	YES	variant falls outside the patent claim
NO
2. Would this (i.e. the variant had no material effect) have been obvious at the date of publication of the patent to a reader skilled in the art		variant falls outside the patent claim
NO
3. Would the readers skilled in the art nevertheless have understood from the language of the claim that the patentee intended that strict compliance with the primary meaning was an essential requirement of the invention	YES	variant falls outside the patent claim
NO
conclusion is that the patentee was intending the word or phrase to have not a literal but a figurative meaning denoting a class of things which includes both the variant and the literal meaning.