Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

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Key definition

Patent definition

What does Patent mean? A patent is a registrable intellectual property right used in practice to protect a technical invention by giving the owner, in the relevant territory, the exclusive right to stop others making, using, selling or importing the claimed invention without consent. In the UK (England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and Ireland, the regime is statutory (Patents Act 1977; Patents Act 1992) and aligned with the European Patent Convention, so usage is broadly consistent. To be patentable, an invention must be new, involve an inventive step, be capable of industrial application and not fall within excluded subject matter (for example,...

Practitioner’s guide to major patent claim types: product, process and specialised formats (Markush, two-part, omnibus, second medical use, product-by-process, reach-through)

Published by a LexisNexis IP expert

Practice notes

Types of Patent Claims

Patent claims fall into two principal classes: product claims and process claims. Section 60(1) of the Patents ACT 1977 recognises that these two claim types attract distinct scopes of protection. Beyond this basic division, claims can also be grouped according to their specific configuration or characteristics. These configurations and characteristics have developed through case law, patent office practice and legislative developments. This Practice Note outlines several of the key claim forms practitioners most frequently meet.

Claims to products

A product claim targets a thing per se, such as an article, machine, substance or composition. These claims require the item to include specified technical features, whether structural or functional, to set it apart from what is known. Structural features concern the product’s physical attributes, while functional features relate to what the product can achieve. Any structure capable of performing the stated function may fall within the ambit of a functional feature, although, in practice, the patentee may be restricted to performance by structures of the kind disclosed in the specification. Whether the product has...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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