Appeal No. 1997-4381
Application 08/440,734
bind and block binding sites/determinates on the bacteria and their ability to competitively
inhibit subsequent phage attack. In this regard, the following passage from PPG Indus.,
Inc. v. Guardian Indus. Corp., 75 F.3d 1558, 1564, 37 USPQ2d 1618, 1623 (Fed. Cir.
1996) is instructive here.
In unpredictable art areas, this court has refused to find broad generic claims
enabled by specifications that demonstrate the enablement of only one or a
few embodiments and do not demonstrate with reasonable specificity how to
make and use other potential embodiments across the full scope of the
claim. See, e.g., In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 1050-52, 29 USPQ2d
2010, 2013-15 (Fed. Cir. 1993); Amgen, Inc. v. Chugai Pharmaceutical Co.,
927 F.2d 1200, 1212-14, 18 USPQ2d 1016, 1026-28 (Fed. Cir.), cert.
denied, 502 U.S. 856 (1991); In re Vaeck, 947 F.2d at 496, 20 USPQ2d at
1445. Enablement is lacking in those cases, the court has explained,
because the undescribed embodiments cannot be made, based on the
disclosure in the specification, without undue experimentation. But the
question of undue experimentation is a matter of degree. The fact that some
experimentation is necessary does not preclude enablement; what is
required is that the amount of experimentation “must not be unduly
extensive.” Atlas Powder Co., v. E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Co., 750 F.2d
1569, 1576, 224 USPQ 409, 413 (Fed. Cir. 1984). The Patent and
Trademark Office Board of Appeals summarized the point well when it
stated:
The test is not merely quantitative, since a considerable
amount of experimentation is permissible, if it is merely
routine, or if the specification in question provides a
reasonable amount of guidance with respect to the direction in
which the experimentation should proceed to enable the
determination of how to practice a desired embodiment of the
invention claimed.
Ex parte Jackson, 217 USPQ 804, 807 (1982).
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