assess-patent-claim-scope
Purpose
Assess claim breadth, limiting elements, support, overlap, design-around vulnerability, and scope uncertainty without making a legal conclusion beyond the evidence.
Input contract
yamlrequired: [parsed_claim, cited_support, jurisdiction_scope] optional: [related_claims, family_map, prior_art_records] constraints: [each scope judgment must identify claim language, support, jurisdiction, and uncertainty]
Procedure
- Separate mandatory, optional, functional, and contextual claim elements.
- Map each element to disclosed support and identify limiting combinations.
- Compare overlap and distinction against related claims and declared prior-art records.
- Record design-around paths and unresolved interpretation questions.
Output contract
yamlproduces: [element_scope_map, support_map, overlap_assessment, design_around_options, scope_uncertainties] delta_fields: [findings, evidence_updates, uncertainties, decisions, open_questions]
Quality gates
- Mandatory elements and jurisdiction are explicit.
- Overlap claims cite the compared claim language.
- Unclear terms remain uncertainty markers.
Failure and counterexamples
Do not infer broad protection from a title or abstract, and do not treat technical similarity as claim overlap.
Provenance map
resolved: knowledge-acquisition-claim-analysisresolved: quality-scoring


