Specification That Discloses No Range Of Values Does Not Provide Sufficient Written Description For Claiming A Specific Range Of Values

Indivior UK Limited v. Dr. Reddy's Laboratories S.A., Nos. 2020-2073, 2020-2142 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 24, 2021)

This opinion concerns an appeal and cross-appeal of a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) inter partes review (“IPR”) decision and addresses the question of whether claims in a later-filed application were entitled to the filing date of an earlier application. The patent-at-issue was the fifth continuation in a chain of applications, the earliest of which was filed on August 7, 2009 and was published on February 10, 2011. Petitioner challenged claims 1-5 and 7-14 in the IPR by alleging that the limitations reciting specific polymer weight percentages added to the claims by amendment do not have written description support in the earlier patent application, and thus, the challenged claims are not entitled to the benefit of the earlier patent application's filing date. Patent owner did not dispute that if the earlier patent application lacked written description