The eagle-eyed among you many have read in the news about the sad plight of the semicolon. Its appearance in English literature is reportedly plummeting, with over half of British students not knowing how to use it at all. Fortunately, I can reassure concerned readers that the patent attorney profession is doing its part to keep the little semicolon alive and well.

It is a peculiar requirement of the patent system that any invention—no matter how complex—must be defined in the words of a single sentence, known as “claim 1” of the patent. This constraint compels patent attorneys to craft some fearsomely long sentences. While the humble comma suffices for short lists of features, separating the main clauses of such monster sentences demands something with more grammatical substance. Enter the semicolon: that most useful of punctuation marks.

So, while many writers may be turning their backs on the semicolon, it will live on in the arcane world of patents for as long as the world keep innovating.