Decision Parameters
Decisions It Cites
In re Prater I [415 F.2d 1378, 1968]
Rules & Quotes
[DESCRIPTION] {1} We may take it that, as the statute requires, the specifications just detailed show a way of using the inventor's method, and that he conceived that particular way described was the best one. But he is not confined to that particular mode of use since the claims of the patent, not its specifications, measure the invention. Paper Bag Patent Case, 210 U.S. 405, 419; McCarty v. Lehigh Valley R. Co., 160 U.S. 110, 116; Winans v. Denmead, 15 How. 330, 343. While the claims of a patent may incorporate the specifications or drawings by reference, see Snow v. Lake Shore R. Co., 121 U.S. 617, 630, and thus limit the patent to the form described in the specifications, it is not necessary to embrace in the claims or describe in the specifications all possible forms in which the claimed principle may be reduced to practice. It is enough that the principle claimed is exemplified by a written description of it and of the manner of using it "in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms" as will enable one "skilled in the art to make, construct, compound and use the same."
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