November 2012 Oral argument should be scheduled soon in In re Owens, No. 12-1261 (Fed. Cir.). The Court will decide whether an applicant can amend an original patent disclosure to include an unclaimed (broken line) boundary without violating the written description requirement. The specific issue on appeal from the Board is “[w]hether a partial bottle design claimed in a later application, circumscribed in part by an unclaimed broken boundary line that is not itself explicitly shown in an earlier application, is disclosed in the earlier application in a manner that satisfies the written description requirement of 35 U.S.C. §112 when the earlier application shows a full bottle design of which the partial bottle design is a part.” Appeal Br. 2. The reply brief was filed on October 15, 2012.
Looking Ahead
