single means claim

A type of claim in a patent application that indicates a process, result, or function but does not describe the method of reaching that end [a method of curing cancer].

• When no other method is obvious, such an assertion claims rights to all possible ways of achieving the result — ways not specified in the application and even ways that have not yet been invented. Single-means claims are rejected as too broad.

— Also termed single-element means claim. Cf. MEANS-PLUS-FUNCTION CLAUSE. [Cases: Patents 101(8).]

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