The U.S. patent statue currently requires a patent specification to “contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains…to make and use the same[.]” At issue before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Ariad Pharmaceuticals v. Eli Lilly is whether the “written description” requirement at the beginning of this sentence is a separate and distinct requirement from the “enablement” requirement recited in the latter part of the sentence. Finnegan partner Charles Lipsey, arguing on behalf of Eli Lilly, maintained that claims only describe the boundary of inventions, but not the inventions themselves.