An Enabling Written Description

by Dennis Crouch

As Jason Rantanen posted, the Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Amgen v. Sanofi, agreeing to hear its first patent case in two terms.  The case has the potential of shaking up disclosure doctrine in a big way.  In particular, Amgen argues that the Federal Circuit incorrectly created two separate requirements from overlapping textual portions of Section 112(a): Written Description and Enablement.  Truthfully, having two separate and distinct requirements reflects an incoherent textual analysis of the statute. Over the past several years, both of these doctrines have increasingly focused on a “full scope” disclosure that makes it virtually impossible to include broad claims, especially genus claims with functional limitations as Amgen did in this case.   More to come. . .