USPTO Glossary Initiative

Overview
On June 4, 2013, the White House Office of the Press Secretary issued a press release titled FACT SHEET: White House Task Force on High-Tech Patent Issues, which listed a series of Legislative Recommendations and Executive Actions "designed to protect innovators from frivolous litigation and ensure the highest-quality patents in our system."

In June 2013, the White House issued a series of Executive Actions concerning high-tech patent issues. Executive Action No. 2 concerned functional claiming, specifically, (i) improving functional claim clarity; and (ii) possible glossary usage in patent specifications. The White House assigned Executive Action No. 2 to the USPTO, stating:

"The AIA made important improvements to the examination process and overall patent quality, but stakeholders remain concerned about patents with overly broad claims &mdash; particularly in the context of software. The PTO will provide new targeted training to its examiners on scrutiny of functional claims and will, over the next six months develop strategies to improve claim clarity, such as by use of glossaries in patent specifications to assist examiners in the software field."