This seminar examines some of the many issues that surround the interpretation of a patent's claims in Germany, the UK and US. Patents operate as a breakwater from competition, enabling control of the supply and use of a certain type of information; information that would otherwise be freely appropriable by all. They create scarcity where there would naturally be none, marking out a novel zone of virgin territory that may only be cultivated by the patentee or with their permission. Due to this effect their scope is of critical importance. In the UK, as in Germany and the US, the patent's...