We’ve come a long way from the first U.S. design patent, which did not even involve a drawing. According to USPTO projections, the 1 millionth U.S. design patent may potentially be issued in October of this year.
Patent claims capture the scope of an invention and define the meets-and-bounds of protection available for the invention. A patent’s written description describes the invention and informs the meaning of the terms used in the patent claims. The USPTO interprets the meaning of words in the claims by referring primarily to the written description—and, on occasion, to other sources.