United States Federal Circuit

In an infringement suit over patents relating to plasmids for the enhanced expression of an enzyme, summary judgments of invalidity of certain claims and noninfringement of the remainder are affirmed where: 1) to satisfy the written description requirement in the case of a chemical or biotechnological genus, one must show that one has possession, as described in the application, of sufficient species to show that he or she invented and disclosed the totality of the genus; 2) the disclosure of one particular gene in plaintiffs' patents was not representative of and failed to adequately support the entire claimed genus, and the patents therefore lacked adequate written description; and 3) under the "all limitations" rule, infringement could not be established by application of the doctrine of equivalents.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/08/2008
• Published 09/08/2008

Judges

• LOURIE, Circuit Judge., Before LOURIE, BRYSON, and PROST, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Frederick H. Colen, Reed Smith LLP, of Pittsburgh, PA, argued for all plaintiffs-appellants.   With him on the briefs were Charles H. Dougherty, Jr. and Mark Levin.


• For Appellees:
  
• Stephen S. Rabinowitz, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, of New York, NY, argued for all defendants-appellees.   With him on the briefs were Mitchell Epner, Randy C. Eisensmith, and Alison R. Ladd.