[email protected] wrote:

> Hi,
> I am following patent 6,914,453 by IBM to write claims.
>
> I would like to ask another question:
> What is the difference between 'providing' and 'applying' in
> a patent claim area for electronic circuit?
>
> In the above patent, it writes:
> 1. A method ...
> providing a clock input to the logic circuits;
> providing one or more static signal inputs to the logic circuit; <--
> generating one or more dynamic signal inputs ...
> applying the one or more dynamic signal input to the circuit;
> ...
> 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of
> applying one or more static signal inputs to the logic circuit.
>
>>From the above descriptions, I am confused about why claim 4
> repeats a step that has already been described, but insead of
> using 'providing', it uses 'applying' this time.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Weng
>
If you look closely at claim #1, note the use of providing,
generating, applying, precharging, evaluating, holding, and converting
are all used (listed in order of occurrence).
In #4, "applying" would appear to mean that an external signal is
used (applied).
In #1, "providing" appears to be a modifier of the action "step".
I ain't no engrish hexpert, nor familiar with "patentese" related to
logic circuits, so i could be very wrong in those assessments.
Look at at least a dozen patents direcly related to the field of
interest - and keep an eye out for similar or identical constructs like
those you mentioned.
That is how i discovered that "depending" was patentese for the
engrish term "descending".