Legal Definitions - all-claims rule

Definition: The all-claims rule was a doctrine that stated a patent would be considered invalid if every inventor named in the patent did not make an inventive contribution to every claim in the patent. However, this doctrine has been abandoned.

For example, if a patent had three inventors and ten claims, each inventor would have to contribute to all ten claims for the patent to be valid under the all-claims rule. However, this is no longer the case.

Under Section 116 of the Patent Act, inventors can now apply for a patent jointly even if they did not make a contribution to every claim in the patent. This means that if one inventor contributed to five claims and another inventor contributed to the other five claims, the patent can still be valid.

Overall, the all-claims rule was a strict requirement for patent validity that has since been relaxed. Now, inventors can apply for a patent jointly even if they did not contribute to every claim in the patent.