What "Embodiment" Means in Patent Applications

Patent applications in a drawer
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by Mary Bellis
Mary Bellis, known by some as CalmX, was an experimental artist, film director and producer, video game content creator, and freelance writer for some 18 years. She specialized in writing about inventors and inventions, in particular. Bellis died in March 2015.
Updated January 23, 2018

Embodiment by definition is a manner in which an invention can be made, used, practiced or expressed.

Embodiment in Patent Applications

The phrase embodiment will be in your patent application, as part of the "legalese" used. In a patent application, the specification will include descriptions of the preferred embodiments. If you read a patent you will often see a section headlined DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT. You will often refer to some aspect of your invention as an embodiment in descriptions.

Looking at examples of how the word is used should make what it means and how to use the word clearer.

Examples

The following examples are more fully described in the first link box below.

  • DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
  • FIG. 1 is a partial sectional view of a Halloween mask with a flash device in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
  • FIG. 1 is a front pictorial perspective view of a wireless telephone constructed in accordance with an embodiment the present invention;