Warden Doctrine

The Warden Doctrine is a legal principle in patent law stating that obtaining a patent doesn't grant automatic rights to all aspects of an invention. Instead, a patent grants exclusive rights only to the specific claims described in the patent, and not to unrelated or broader elements that might be part of the invention. This means patent holders can’t control or claim legal rights over parts of the invention not included in their patent claims. The doctrine emphasizes the importance of precise claim language to define the scope of patent protection clearly.