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Old 31-Jul-2005, 17:24
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Robert B. Mercer Robert B. Mercer is offline
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Default Re: The function of "said" in patent description

I agree with tctepreslm.

Using 'said' here would only be common in a legal contract, or perhaps an old textbook.

You will also hear, "the above mentioned belt"... SAID and ABOVE MENTIONED are trying to help you understand a complicated instruction.

What if in sentence number 384 you read, "The belt then turns the cogburr."
You might think, what cogburr? What is a cogburr? Did I miss the place where they explained the cogburr, what it was, what it looked like?

To remind you that they DID already explain, in sentence number 204, what the cogburr was and what it does, they would say in sentence number 384, "The belt then turns the ABOVE MENTIONED cogburr," or "The belt then turns SAID cogburr."

It is still your job to find WHERE they mentioned the cogburr, but you know that they DID talk about about it, it is not a NEW part or idea.
"JW1212 wrote a post that asked a question about English. This posting was written well and had the word 'elephant' in it.

When Robert read the post he..."

OOPS! A lawyer would ask, when Robert read WHAT post? Which post is 'the post'?

So, in a legal contact, it would say, "When Robert read said post," or "When Robert read the above mentioned post..." to make it PERFECTLY clearn WHICH post I read.
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