MPEP 2111: Broadest Reasonable Interpretation (BRI)

What MPEP 2111 covers

BRI applies during examination because applicants can still amend; courts construing issued patents use the Phillips standard instead.

• 2111.01 Plain meaning: ordinary meaning to one of ordinary skill, unless the inventor acted as lexicographer.
• 2111.02 Effect of preamble: whether a preamble limits the claim or is a mere statement of purpose or intended use.
• 2111.03 Transitional phrases: "comprising" is open, "consisting of" is closed, "consisting essentially of" excludes elements that materially affect basic and novel characteristics.
• 2111.04: "adapted to", "wherein", "whereby" and contingent clauses.
• 2111.05: functional and nonfunctional descriptive material.

How examiners use it

Most prior art rejections begin with a BRI reading of the claim. Applicants respond by showing the reading is unreasonable in light of the specification, or by amending.

On the patent bar

Heavily tested: the three transitional phrases, when a preamble limits a claim, and that BRI is not the same as the courts' standard for issued patents.

Read the full text

Official title: Claim Interpretation; Broadest Reasonable Interpretation [R-10.2019].

Read MPEP 2111 in full on Wysebridge ↗

Or at the source: USPTO MPEP § 2111.

Questions & answers

Sources for this entry

1. USPTO — MPEP § 2111 USPTO
   Official text of this section, Ninth Edition, Revision 01.2024.
2. Wysebridge MPEP Center Wysebridge (publisher of this site)
   The full MPEP (9th Ed., Rev. 01.2024) free to read, with Wysebridge's estimated patent bar weight for each chapter.

Practical guidance is original editorial content. Company-published figures are the company's own claims and are labeled as such.

Continue this reading path

Intended Use in the MPEPMPEP 2114: Functional Language in Apparatus ClaimsMPEP 2173: Indefiniteness Under 35 U.S.C. 112(b)