The U.S. Supreme Court recently granted certiorari for two
intellectual property cases—one relating to patents and
another for trademarks.
Patent Case
Relevant to patent law, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to
decide the issue of enablement for patents with so-called
“genus claims.” Genus claims are directed to inventions
that are functional in nature, and with several possibilities for
carrying out that function.
The case at issue involves an invention directed to a monoclonal
antibody that binds to one of several residues. Many different
antibodies can bind to these residues—and the patent only
describes a few examples among millions of potential options
(including many that are not yet known). So the issue to be decided
is: Did the patent owner disclose the invention
with enough detail to enable someone in the field to make and use
the invention? More specifically, are a few
examples enough or must one describe every example under the sun?
Or
