claim differentiation
claim differentiation. Patents. A canon of construction presuming that each claim in a patent is different in scope and meaning from all other claims; the presumption that different terms in separate claims must have different meanings if one of the claims would otherwise be rendered superfluous. • The doctrine cannot be used by the patentee to broaden claims, and a court will ignore it when convinced that its interpretation of the claims is correct. The presumption is strongest when a different interpretation would be the only way to make a dependent claim more limiting than the independent claim it refers to. — Also termed doctrine of claim differentiation. [Cases: Patents 165(5). C.J.S. Patents §§ 283, 287, 290, 293.]
