1) A patent claim is to define, in technical terms, the extent of the protection conferred by a patent, or the protection sought in a patent application. The claims are of the utmost importance both during prosecution and litigation. (Quotes from Wikipedia) It is a legal description of your patent right after disclosing an invention.

2) Before filing a patent application, you may have an idea about but you may not know the final answer to the question about the originality of your claimed invention . There may be submarine patent applications and there may also be concurrent discoveries of the same idea/product. Only when the examiner does a comprehensive search of the prior art, the answer is likely to be known, provided that the search is thorough.

As Feng Tian suggests, you WILL NOT know in advance whether what you claim is new. Think of the claims as a set of circles within one largest circle. The largest one is the broadest claim you hope for, the smaller ones are what you may have to settle for. They don't have to fit one inside the earlier, like a set of cookie cutters. Each represents your next best guess as to what is new and, more importantly, inventive. The inventor has usually a few weeks to define his invention with his patent attorney, the infringer has years to design his way around. DON'T let the inventor draft his own claims without patent attorney input. Believe me, dodging such claims takes minutes. J

There is no short answer to your problem. I can only try to give you a few keywords which you might explore further...

To know about the "originality" of your idea, you have to check existing "prior art". This is basically EVERYTHING known about or around your idea in literature, patents and other public sources. For that you'll have to perform an in-depth search in patent and non-patent literature on every aspect you intend to "claim" in your future patent. Plenty of free and paid sources give you access to this type of information. If you're not able to perform such a search yourself, you'll have to hire a (patent information) specialist.

With those results you'll have to draft the claims of your new patent, in most cases together with a patent attorney. When you file your patent, an examiner will, in principle, repeat the search for "prior art" in all sources available to him/her. He/she will check for "novelty" and an existing "inventive step" (basically checking, if it's really "your new idea" or if someone else had it already before). If he/she doesn't find anything close to your idea, you might one day have a (granted) patent and can call yoursel "inventor"...

This is, however, no guarantee. Others might try to use your idea anyway ("infringement") or try to invalidate your patent ("validity search", "opposition" etc.) by trying to find "prior art" you haven't seen before (before = before the "priority date" of your patent application).

Another aspect that has to be mentioned is that this patenting process is not for free, but will cost money. So the preparation (prior art search, drafting claims etc.) should be as good as possible to give you the chance to have a "strong patent" in the end...

Vishal,

A utility patent consists of three or four main parts, the abstract, the drawings, the specification, and the claims.

The abstract summarizes the idea and is a one paragraph description that can be easily referenced to assess a patent.

The specification is where the inventor teaches the world what their idea is, how it works, and why it is better than the other ideas (and novel).

The drawings are a graphical aid to explaining the idea.  Some patents have no drawings, for example chemical formula patents.

The claims are a word description of what your idea consists of.  The claims are the most important part of the patent, because the define what the idea is.

Well the claims of a patent are the most important part from any point of view. The claims contain the legal scope of the invention. They also technically contain the new details provided with the invention. This is why it is the most important part when examining a patent for the offices that grant them and it is where the patentability must first be analyzed in the level of interference that is made to previous patents. The way in which they are written consists of a preamble that includes essential and known features and body of the claim that includes the distinctive and essential characteristics. Distinctive because they determine the novel and essential because present the characteristics necessary for the invention to solve a certain problem.

In the case of the analysis of the originality of an invention to know it is possible patentability, it must also be searched in the state of the art, which includes everything published, anywhere, that is, by any means. This type of search can be done by anyone, but to reduce the risk, which is never carried to zero, you should consult specialized entities.

En español

Bueno las reivindicaciones de una patente son la parte más importante desde todo punto de vista. Las reivindicaciones contienen el alcance legal de la invención. También técnicamente contienen los detalles nuevos que se aporta con la invención. Por ello es la parte más importante a la hora del examen de una patente por las oficinas que las conceden y es donde primero se debe analizar la patentabilidad en el nivel de interferencia que se haga a patentes anteriores. La forma en que se redactan consta de un preámbulo donde se incluyen rasgos esenciales y conocidos y cuerpo de la reivindicación que incluye las características distintivas y esenciales. Distintivas porque determinan los aspectos novedosos y esenciales por cuanto presentan las características necesarias para la invención resuelva determinado problema.

En el caso del análisis de la originalidad de una invención para conocer su posible patentabilidad, además se debe buscar en el estado de la técnica, lo cual incluye todo lo publicado, en cualquier lugar, o sea por cualquier medio. Este tipo de búsqueda la puede hacer cualquiera pero para disminuir el riesgo el cual nunca es llevado a cero, se debe consultar a entidades especializadas en ello.