April 2010

An Initial Comment on Ariad: Written Description and the Baseline of Patent Protection for After-Arising Technology

Following on the heels of the Federal Circuit en banc opinion in Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Eli Lilly & Co., Professor Kevin Collins asks "What next?"

The nine-judge majority reaffirms that the written description requirement applies to original claims and that its scope and purpose are to be determined by examining the relevant Federal Circuit precedent. Indeed, but for the fact that it removes the uncertainty caused by the vociferous dissents in earlier written description opinions, the en banc opinion in Ariad could readily be framed as a non-event in the evolution of the written description requirement. However, the importance of removing the uncertainty about the existence of a written description requirement as applied to original claims should not be lightly dismissed. Before Ariad, the uncertainty channeled much of the scholarly conversation about the written description doctrine into a binary debate, pitting those who it applied to original claims versus those who believed that it did not. After Ariad, the stage is now set for greater participation in more nuanced conversations about the role that the written description requirement does and should play in curtailing patent protection. Ariad may end one facet of the debate over written description, but it would be a lost opportunity if Ariad were interpreted to end the debate over written description more broadly and cut off these more nuanced conversations.

In this short (but nuanced) essay, Professor Collins suggests that the next steps in patent law scholarship should adopt a "trans-doctrinal approach" that reaches the broader purposes and limitations of the law rather than being confined to doctrinal silos.  The essay suggests that this holistic approach may also be helpful in explaining a perception that patent law varies greatly according to the area of technology. [Download Collins.Ariad]

Cite as Kevin Collins, An Initial Comment on Ariad: Written Description and the Baseline of Patent Protection for After-Arising Technology, 2010 Patently-O Patent L.J. 24.