Legal Definitions - functional rejection

Definition: Functional rejection is a type of rejection that occurs when a patent claim broadly claims a function but does not disclose enough structure to account for achieving that function.

Example: If someone tries to patent a new type of car engine that claims to be more fuel-efficient but does not provide enough details on how the engine achieves this function, the patent examiner may issue a functional rejection.

This means that the patent application will be rejected because it does not provide enough information on how the engine works to achieve the claimed function of being more fuel-efficient.

Overall, functional rejection is a common type of rejection that occurs in the patent application process when the patent claim is too broad and lacks sufficient details on how the invention works to achieve the claimed function.