The Federal Circuit has held that a prior art reference was enabled in part because admissions in an applicant’s own specification explained what would have been known to one of ordinary skill in the art. In re Morsa, No. 2015-1107 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 19, 2015). Pointing out knowledge of one skilled in the art can […]
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Williamson v. Citrix Online, LLC, and Lessons for Patent Drafting
Williamson v. Citrix Online, LLC, No. 11-CV-2409 (Fed. Cir. June 16, 2015), raises the specter that software patent claims, already oft-challenged in the wake of Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank, could face the additional challenge of being unexpectedly construed as “means-plus-function” claims under 35 U.S.C. § 112(f). (Or, prior to the America Invents Act, “Section 112, […]
Full Scope of Patent Claims Must Be Enabled at the Time of Filing
The headline of this post, a truism of patent law to be sure, is nicely illustrated by the Federal Circuit’s opinion in Convolve, Inc. v. Compaq Computer Corp., No. 2012-1074 (July 1, 2013). After an inventor admitted in testimony that he had been unable to implement claimed subject matter in certain contexts until nine years […]