| n. | 1. | The act of specifying or determining by a mark or limit; notation of limits. |
| 2. | The designation of particulars; particular mention; | |
| 3. | A written statement containing a minute description or enumeration of particulars, as of charges against a public officer, the terms of a contract, the description of an invention, as in a patent; also, a single article, item, or particular, an allegation of a specific act, as in a charge of official misconduct. | |
| 4. | A detailed listing or description of the required properties of some object proposed to be built or bought; - usually used in the |
| Noun | 1. | specification - a detailed description of design criteria for a piece of work Synonyms: spec |
| 2. | specification - naming explicitly | |
| 3. | specification - (patent law) a document drawn up by the applicant for a patent of invention that provides an explicit and detailed description of the nature and usse of an invention | |
| 4. | specification - a restriction that is insisted upon as a condition for an agreement Synonyms: stipulation |
SPECIFICATION, civil law. A term used in the civil law, by which is meant a
person's making a new species or subject from materials belonging to
another. Bouv. Inst. Theolo. ps. 1, c. 1, art. 1, Sec. 4, Is. 4, p. 74.
2. When the new species can be again reduced to the matter of which it
was made, the law considers the former mass as still existing, and,
therefore, the new species as an accessory to the former subject; but where
the thing made cannot be so reduced, as in the case of wine, which cannot be
again turned into grapes, there is no place for the fictio juris; and,
there, the workmanship draws after it the property of the material. Inst. 2,
1, 25 Dig. 41, 1, 7, 7. See Accession; Confusion; Mixtion; and Aso & Man.
Inst. B. 2, t. 2, c. 8.
SPECIFICATION, 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.
| (jargon) | specification - (spec) A document describing how some system should work. |