What is the standard for determining if a patent disclosure is enabling?

This page is an FAQ based on guidance from the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure. It is provided as guidance, with links to the ground truth sources. This is information only: it is not legal advice.

The standard for determining if a patent disclosure is enabling is based on the presumption that a skilled artisan can use the disclosure to produce the claimed invention. MPEP 716.07 states:

‘Further, since in a patent it is presumed that a process if used by one skilled in the art will produce the product or result described therein, such presumption is not overcome by a mere showing that it is possible to operate within the disclosure without obtaining the alleged product.’

This means that to prove a patent is not enabling, it’s not enough to show that one might fail to produce the invention; rather, it must be shown that a person skilled in the art would be unable to produce the invention following the patent’s disclosure.