The first claim in a patent should be short and broad, to gain the most patent protection and make it easy to prove infringement of your patent. What you don't want is a first claim that is very long, with tons of clauses, since a device that uses all but a few of the clauses doesn't infringe. What follows is a good example of a really bad first claim, with over 1700 words, and dozens and dozens of clauses. The patent is for one of those notebook financial organizers, and has only this one claim. Read it and weep. Greg Aharonian Internet Patent News Service (for subscription info, send 'help' to patents@world.std.com ) (for prior art search services info, send 'prior' to patents@world.std.com ) (for WWW patent searching, try http://sunsite.unc.edu/patents/intropat.html ) ==================== 5358278 Pocket-size personal financial organizer Dennis Ellis, Inventor Gerald Walsh, Attorney What is claimed is: 1. An apparatus for monitoring, controlling, and reducing spending referred to as a personal financial organizer, having a plurality of pages connected by a binding means, said personal financial organizer thereby having pages on a left side and a right side of said binding means, said pages containing parallel horizontal and vertical lines forming columns, rows, and discrete rectangular areas for entering data wherein (a) first and second pages comprise means for organizing monthly fixed bills, referred to as a Systematic Bill Payment Organizer having columns labeled monthly fixed bills, due date, average monthly payment, and six month payment history and rows labeled savings, periodic expense savings, total monthly payments and check number/amount, said first page having an extension so that the extension forms a left portion, the first page a middle portion, and the second page a right portion of said Systematic Bill Payment Organizer; (b) third and fourth pages comprise means for listing spending categories, referred to as a Category Descriptions having columns labeled with spending categories including housing/child care, food, transportation, clothing/personal care, savings/retirement, medical/life insurance, recreation/education, and contribution/miscellaneous and comprise means for recording monthly projected spending per category for comparison to monthly net income, referred to as a Trac-A-Spending-Plan.TM. Worksheet having columns labeled income deductions, income, interest income, miscellaneous income, and totals and rows labeled monthly gross income, less tithes, less withholding taxes, and monthly net income, said fourth page having an extension so that said third page forms a left portion and said fourth page forms a right portion of said Category Descriptions and said extension forms said Trac-A-Spending-Plan.TM. Worksheet; (c) fifth and sixth pages comprise said Trac-A-Spending-Plan.TM. Worksheet having columns labeled with monthly projected spending and said spending categories, said fifth page having an extension so that said extension forms a left portion, said fifth page forms a middle portion and said sixth page forms a right portion of said Trac-A-Spending-Plan.TM. Worksheet; (d) seventh and eighth pages comprise means for recording projected spending per category per week, referred to as a Weekly Projected Spending Worksheet having columns labeled with said spending categories and rows labeled first week, second week, third week, and fourth and fifth week and comprise means for recording actual spending per category by week for comparison to weekly projected spending per category, calculating a total weekly spending differential, calculating a total-to-date spending differential balance, and calculating monthly actual spending per category, referred to as a Household Spending Record having columns labeled with said categories, combined totals, week's spending differential, and spending differential total-to-date and rows labeled first week projected spending/actual spending, second week projected spending/actual spending, third week projected spending/actual spending, and fourth/fifth week projected spending/actual spending, said eighth page having an extension so that said seventh page forms a left portion and said eighth page forms a right portion of said Weekly Projected Spending Worksheet and said extension forms said Household Spending Record; (e) ninth and tenth pages comprise means for determining how much income to set aside for future spending based upon prior spending by projecting spending per category per week and per month, referred to as an Earmarked Funds Worksheet having columns labeled with said categories, net income and combined totals and rows labeled first week, second week, third week, and fourth and fifth week, and comprise means for recording actual spending per category per day for each week of a month, weekly actual spending per category, weekly projected spending per category, total actual spending per day, total weekly projected spending, and total weekly actual spending, referred to as a Money-Tracker.TM. having columns labeled with said spending categories, remarks/daily combined totals, and days and rows labeled 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, projected spending, and actual spending, said ninth page having an extension so that said ninth page forms a left portion and said tenth page forms a right portion of said Money-Tracker.TM. and said extension forms said Earmarked Funds Worksheet; (f) eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth pages comprise said Money-Tracker.TM. without said extension on the pages, said eleventh and twelfth pages having said rows labeled 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, said thirteenth and fourteenth pages having said rows labeled 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21, and said fifteenth and sixteenth pages having said rows labeled 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31; (g) a seventeenth page comprises a page for recording comments, suggestions, objectives and goals; (h) an eighteenth page comprises means for recording monthly actual spending per category for comparison to monthly projected spending per category, recording monthly net income, calculating monthly spending differentials per category, total monthly projected spending, total monthly actual spending, total monthly spending differential, and calculating a month's cash flow, referred to as a Monthly Grand Totals having columns labeled with said spending categories, combined totals, first week, second week, third week, fourth and fifth week, and rows labeled monthly projected spending, monthly actual spending, spending differential, monthly net income, monthly summary, combined spending, and net cash flow amount; (i) nineteenth and twentieth pages comprise means for creating a semi-annual financial progress report presenting recommended spending percents per category, monthly projected spending per category, actual spending per month per category, net income per month, six month average net income, six month average actual spending per category, six month average spending percents per category, total actual spending per month, cash flow per month, six month average total actual spending per month, and six month average cash flow per month, referred to as a Semi-annual Financial Progress Report having columns labeled spending category, recommended spending percents, monthly projected spending amount, monthly net income, monthly actual spending, six month average income, six month average spending, and six month average spending percent and rows labeled with said spending categories and recommended spending percents, monthly actual spending, and net cash flow so that said fifteenth page forms a left portion and said sixteenth page forms a right portion of said Semi-Annual Financial Progress Report; (j) twenty-first and twenty-second pages comprise means for recording debt payments to determine total monthly debt obligations, to calculate, a debt ratio, and to determine extra amounts of payments to reduce debt, referred to as a Debt Reduction Worksheet having columns labeled type loan, creditors, APR%, remaining balance, average monthly payments, amount toward interest, amount toward principal, months left to pay, and amount extra and rows labeled home, automobile, education, installments, credit cards, and other, said twenty-first page having an extension so that the extension forms a left portion, the twenty-first page a middle portion, and the twenty-second page a right portion of said Debt Reduction Worksheet; (k) twenty-third and twenty-fourth pages comprise means for recording tax deductible spending, referred to as a Tax-Trac.TM. having columns labeled date, check number, charity donations, medical and dental, real estate taxes, personal property tax, job expenses, interest paid, investment interest, child care and a row labeled totals; (l) said extension of said eighth page forming said Household Spending Record folds over the eleventh through seventeenth pages thereby lying adjacent to said eighteenth page so that said Household Spending Record and said Monthly Grand Totals may be viewed together; and (m) said personal financial organizer has multiples of said Household Spending Record, Monthly Grand Totals, Money-Tracker.TM., and Semi-annual Financial Progress Report so that said personal financial organizer may be used over a twelve month period, whereby a user monitors, controls, and reduces spending by (1) entering fixed bill amounts on said Systematic Bill Payment organizer; (2) examining said Category Descriptions to determine applicable spending categories and entering categories that are unique for the user; (3) completing said Trac-A-Spending-Plan.TM. Worksheet to determine monthly net income, monthly projected spending per category, total monthly projected spending, and the relationship of total monthly projected spending to monthly net income; (4) completing said Weekly Projected Spending Worksheet to determine weekly projected spending per category; (5) entering on said Monthly Grand Totals monthly spending amounts that are projected for each spending category and entering weekly income amount as it is paid; (6) entering on said Household Spending Record weekly projected spending amounts per category and total combined weekly projected spending amounts; (7) entering on said Earmarked Funds Worksheet the portions of a paycheck that will be set aside for future spending for a particular category during a particular week; (8) entering on said Money-Tracker.TM. weekly projected spending amounts per category, total Weekly projected spending amount, actual spending amounts incurred during the week on a daily basis for each category, total actual spending amounts for the day, weekly actual spending amounts per category, and total actual weekly spending amounts; (9) transferring weekly actual spending amounts per category from said Money-Tracker.TM. to said Household Spending Record, adding said weekly actual spending amounts per category to obtain monthly actual spending per category and total actual spending per week, and subtracting said total actual spending per week from total weekly projected spending to obtain said weekly spending differential; (10) adding said spending differential to said spending differential total-to-date balance; (11) using said spending differential to make adjustments in a next week's projected spending to maintain said spending differential balance positive and repeating this process for each week of a month until the end of said month; (12) entering on said Household Spending Record total monthly actual spending amount; (13) entering on said Monthly Grand Totals said monthly actual spending amount per category, total monthly actual spending amount, the monthly spending differential amount per category, total monthly spending differential amount, income amount per week, and total monthly income amount; (14) calculating on said Monthly Grand Totals a net monthly cash flow by subtracting total monthly actual spending from total monthly income, then making adjustments on a next month's and week's projected spendings to make said cash flow positive for a next month, and repeating this process each month; (15) entering on said Semi-annual Financial Progress Report, for each of six months, total monthly income amount, monthly actual spending amount per category, total monthly actual spending amount, and monthly cash flow amounts, calculating six month averages for income, actual spending per category, total monthly actual spending and cash flow, and calculating thereon six month spending percents by dividing six month average actual spending per category and total six month actual spending by average six month income; (16) adjusting the next month's and week's projected spendings to increase cash flow; (17) entering debt information on said Debt Reduction Worksheet to determine debt cost, debt ratio, how much payment can be made to increase the rate at which debt is reduced, and how debt spending can be reduced; and (18) recording spending on said Tax-Trac.TM. to provide total annual tax deductible spending to reduce income tax liability.