Legal Term: SPECIFICATION,

Definition: practice, contracts. A particular and detailed account of a thing: example, in order to obtain a patent for an invention, it is necessary to file a specification or an instrument of writing, which must lay open and disclose to the public every part of the process by which the invention can be made useful if the specification does not contain the whole truth relative to the discovery, or contains more than is requisite to produce the desired effect, and the concealment or addition was made for the purpose of deception, the patent would be void; for if the specification were insufficient on account of its want of clearness, exactitude or good faith, it would be a fraud on society that the patentee should obtain a monopoly without giving up his invention. 2 Kent, Com. 300; 1 Bell~s Com. part 2, c. 3, s. 1, p. 112; Perpigna on Pat. 67; Renouard, Des Brevets d~Inv. 252.

2. In charges against persons accused of military offences, they must be particularly described and clearly expressed; this is called the specification. Tytl. on Courts Mart. 109.

Return to the Legalnut.com Law Dictionary