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)).