11.2.6 Independent and Dependent Claims involve the way a patent application is composed. An independent claim is the main claim of the patent and stands alone. It does not refer to any other claims in the application. A dependent claim is a claim that is dependent on another claim in the application. It must be related to the independent claim and include additional elements or limitations. Dependent claims are typically used to broaden the scope of the patent. The types of dependent claims are "Multiple Dependent Claims," which refer to multiple other claims in the application, and "Object-Oriented Dependent Claims," which refer to a single other claim in the application.