[dctoedt]

That's correct; many patent claims are written in long, dense paragraphs, without line breaks, subdivision numbers, or other "signposts" to guide the reader. I'm convinced that often this is often more than just laziness or incompetence by the patent attorney — it's intentional obscurantism, to make it more difficult and expensive for others to determine whether or not they infringe and whether or not the claim is in fact legally patentable. [3]

[3] http://www.oncontracts.com/multi-sentence-claims/ (self-cite)