[ExI] comprisition, was: extropy-chat Digest, Vol 216, Issue 27

[William Flynn Wallace]

I hope that helps without being overly pedantic.

Stuart LaForge
Thanks - I would hate to see a post of yours that was.  bill w

On Sun, Sep 19, 2021 at 11:09 AM Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
> Quoting Anton Sherwood:
>
> >>>> ??comprise? and ?compose? are roughly reciprocals, not synonyms.
> >
> > On 2021-9-16 15:03, William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat wrote:
> >> Wrong - They are synonyms
> >> I am not sure what a reciprocal of compose or comprise would be.? ?bill
> w
> >
> > The archipelago comprises these islands.
> > These islands compose the archipelago.
> >
> > There is an inherent asymmetry between the compound and the components,
> > the container and the contained, the product and the factors.  Each can
> > be described in relation to the other, but these are reciprocal
> > relations, not the same relation.
>
> Not being a fan of Nazis, grammar or otherwise, I won't speak to
> whether "composed" an "comprised" are grammatically synonyms or not. I
> will, however, state from personal experience that as terms of art in
> patent law, the two words convey different distinct meanings and the
> distinction can be costly to would be inventors. That distinction is
> that in a patent application, "composed" carries the connotation of
> completeness while "comprised" is open-ended.
>
> So, for example, if you write in a patent application, "my invention,
> the electric light, is composed of a light bulb, a battery, and wires
> in a circuit", then that is the entirety of your invention. So if
> somebody else adds something to the circuit, like a switch or a
> resistor, then the new circuit is no longer your invention and no
> infringement has occurred.
>
> On the other hand, if you write in your patent application, "my
> invention, the electric light, comprises a light bulb, a battery, and
> wires in a circuit", then somebody who adds a switch or diode to the
> circuit is still using your invention and it is infringing your patent
> rights.
>
> So in patent law "comprised" infers that the components listed are not
> all there is to the invention, simply that any additional components
> are ancillary to the invention. While composed suggests the components
> listed are in total, the complete invention.
>
> Applying patent law to the OP's use of comprised: A burger comprised
> of wooly mammoth meat might also contain beef, soy, or other fillers
> in addition to mammoth meat, but a burger composed of mammoth meat
> would have to be 100% mammoth meat and nothing else.
>
> I hope that helps without being overly pedantic.
>
> Stuart LaForge
>
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