In law, an abstract is a brief statement that contains the most important points of a long legal document or of several related legal papers.[1]

Types of legislation

Main article: Property abstract

The abstract of title, used in real estate transactions, is the more common form of abstract. An abstract of title lists all the owners of a piece of land, a house, or a building before it came into possession of the present owner. The abstract also records all deeds, wills, mortgages, and other documents that affect ownership of the property. An abstract describes a chain of transfers from owner to owner and any agreements by former owners that are binding on later owners.[1]

Patent law

In the context of patent law and specifically in prior art searches, searching through abstracts is a common way to find relevant prior art document to question to novelty or inventive step (or non-obviousness in United States patent law) of an invention. Under United States patent law, the abstract may be called "Abstract of the Disclosure".[2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b Sheppard, Stephen Michael (21 May 2012). The Wolters Kluwer Bouvier Law Dictionary: Desk Edition. New York: Aspen Publishers. ISBN 9781454806110.
  2. ^ United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) web site, 608.01(b) Abstract of the Disclosure
  3. ^ 37 CFR 1.72 – Title and abstract.

External links

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