Appeal No. 2002-0496 Page 7
Application No. 09/182,542
fault, to determine a velocity of the transient signal in a distribution loop of a URD
system.
2. ENABLEMENT DETERMINATION
Having determined what subject matter is being claimed, the next inquiry is
whether the subject matter is enabled. "To be enabling under §112, a patent must
contain a description that enables one skilled in the art to make and use the claimed
invention." Atlas Powder Co. v. E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., 750 F.2d 1569, 1576,
224 USPQ 409, 413 (Fed. Cir. 1984) (citing Raytheon Co. v. Roper Corp., 724 F.2d
951, 960, 220 USPQ 592, 599 (Fed. Cir. 1983)). "That some experimentation is
necessary does not preclude enablement; the amount of experimentation, however,
must not be unduly extensive." Id. at 1576, 224 USPQ at 413.
Here, Figure 6 of the appellants' specification "is a flow-chart diagram which
illustrates the operation of the[ir] fault analyzer." (Spec. at 18.) Step 618 of the Figure
is labeled "[s]earch pulse regions for min and max, determine preliminary delays." The
first passage referenced by the appellants explains that "the analyzer, at step 618,
searches each region of interest for minimum and maximum values to determine a
preliminary estimate of the propagation delay of the transient pulse through the cable."
(Id. at 18-19.) Neither the step nor the passage, however, mentions determining a time
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