Basic Requirements of Patentability Written Description, Enablement, and Best Mode

Basic Requirements of Patentability Written Description, Enablement, and Best Mode 

By this point in this text, we have learned a great deal about the requirements of patentability in view of what the prior art has to offer. We have focused especially on the novelty and nonobviousness requirements and the respective place for each in the patentability analysis. Furthermore, we have also examined the utility requirement—the invention must be new and nonobvious and must be useful as well. Although these three requirements together might already seem like an awful lot for inventors to deal with, we are not quite done yet. 

Viewed from the other side, one can consider the alternative. If there were no possibility of exclusivity, what inducement would exist for the full disclosure of one s invention If the invention had any value at all, the full disclosure in the absence of exclusivity would prompt a great deal of copying by others not saddled with the cost of research and development. In such a scenario, there would be little inducement for research and even less inducement for disclosure of the research the things most likely to be disclosed would be those with the least value. As a result of these considerations, the system works best when the equation is balanced.1 

1 The patent bargain is not forced—if the inventors do not wish to disclose the invention, they might, in some circumstances, attempt to keep their invention secret. However, many inventions for which the ultimate 

The Chemist s Companion Guide to Patent Law, by Chris P. Miller and Mark J. Evans Copyright 2010 John Wiley Sons, Inc. 

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