In an era in which computer systems and information technologies are increasingly common occurrences in everyday life, it is no surprise that the U.S. Patent Office receives a large number of patent applications with claims directed to systems that implement these technologies. These computer systems are assemblies of numerous components that may or may not be physically in contact with one another, but that if they satisfy the standards of patentability, including being useful, novel and non-obvious, can and frequently do receive patent protection.
Because of the importance of these industries in the 21st century economy, patent practitioners have over the years become familiar with both drafting and construing claims directed to them. However, because a claimed system may be directed to a combination of components that are part of the same system only because of the movement of information among them, and physical control of these components may be vested in two or more different people, enforcement of a patent claim directed to a system can present unique challenges.
