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MPEP 806.04(e)
Claims Limited to Species

Ninth Edition of the MPEP, Revision 10.2019, Last Revised in June 2020

MPEP Chapter Index
Chapter 800: Restriction in Applications Filed Under 35 U.S.C. 111; Double Patenting
806: Determination of Distinctness or Independence of Claimed Inventions
806.04: Genus and/or Species Inventions

Previous: §806.04(d) | Next: §806.04(f)

806.04(e)    Claims Limited to Species [R-08.2012]

Claims are definitions or descriptions of inventions. Claims themselves are never species. The scope of a claim may be limited to a single disclosed embodiment (i.e., a single species, and thus be designated a specific species claim). Alternatively, a claim may encompass two or more of the disclosed embodiments (and thus be designated a generic or genus claim).

Species always refer to the different embodiments of the invention.

Species may be either independent or related as disclosed (see MPEP § 806.04 and § 806.04(b)).