Other possibilities are aufweisen or enthalten.

It is really important to use the correct term here, otherwise you will change the whole legal sense.

To answer your specific question, "dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass" would be quite wrong here. The expression "characterised in that" does not appear in the original English, so should definitely not be introduced into the German. "Bestehen aus" is sometimes used here, but is not strictly correct. In patent law, if an apparatus "comprises" certain elements, this means that other elements may also be included, whereas, if it "consists of" [bestehen aus] certain elements, this usually means that other elements are excluded, i.e. it is made up of these elements and nothing else. So, comprise is a much broader term than consist of.

E.g. see the following link (page 67):
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9p2oBjTGimEC&pg=RA8-PA67&...