Patent Claiming Strategies.

Patent Claiming Strategies
When talking about claiming strategies, we often quote the Indian legend of the Six Blind Men and the Elephant.

The following is John Godfrey Saxe's (1816-1887) version of the famous Indian legend:

Six Blind Men and the Elephant
 

It was six men of Indostan  To learning much inclined,  Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),  That each by observation  Might satisfy his mind.
 

The First approached the Elephant,  And happening to fall  Against his broad and sturdy side,  At once began to bawl:  "God bless me! but the Elephant  Is very like a wall!"
  

The Second, feeling of the tusk  Cried, "Ho! what have we here,  So very round and smooth and sharp?  To me `tis mighty clear  This wonder of an Elephant  Is very like a spear!"
 

The Third approached the animal,  And happening to take  The squirming trunk within his hands,  Thus boldly up he spake:  "I see," quoth he, "the Elephant  Is very like a snake!"
 

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,  And felt about the knee:  "What most this wondrous beast is like  Is mighty plain," quoth he;  "'Tis clear enough the Elephant  Is very like a tree!"
 

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,  Said: "E'en the blindest man  Can tell what this resembles most;  Deny the fact who can,  This marvel of an Elephant  Is very like a fan!"
 

The Sixth no sooner had begun  About the beast to grope,  Than, seizing on the swinging tail  That fell within his scope.  "I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"  And so these men of Indostan  Disputed loud and long,  Each in his own opinion  Exceeding stiff and strong,  Though each was partly in the right,  And all were in the wrong!
 

Moral:
So oft in theologic wars,  The disputants, I ween,  Rail on in utter ignorance  Of what each other mean,  And prate about an Elephant  Not one of them has seen!

How is this poem related to patents? Well, a good patent attorney should always look to see the different ways to describe the invention. For the elephant of the story, we could prepare the following claims:
I claim:

1. An animal with a snake at its front end.
2. An animal whose side is built like a wall.
3. An animal with a rope at its rear end.

etc.
Each claim describes the elephant yet each claim recites a different aspect of the 'inventive' elephant. Similarly, imagine your product. You can claim it in the straightforward way, or you can look at it from its different "sides" and claim each of those views as well.
 

At Eitan-Mehulal Law Group, we usually look both at the technical invention and the marketing invention. Your marketing department will describe the invention very differently than your technical folks and sometimes, that viewpoint also points to an invention.
 

We might also look at the operation of the invention (e.g. it processes data in a certain way), or just at its achievements (2 times faster than a prior art unit).

We might consider only a small portion of the entire invention to be worthy of a claim.
 

In short, we will consider as many sides of the invention as we can.