What is the test of enablement in patent law?
The test of enablement in patent law determines whether the disclosure in a patent application contains sufficient information to enable a person skilled in the relevant art to make and use the claimed invention without undue experimentation.
As stated in MPEP 2164.01:
“The standard for determining whether the specification meets the enablement requirement was cast in the Supreme Court decision of Minerals Separation Ltd. v. Hyde, 242 U.S. 261, 270 (1916) which postured the question: is the experimentation needed to practice the invention undue or unreasonable?”
This standard is still applied today, and it requires that the claimed invention be enabled so that any person skilled in the art can make and use the invention without undue experimentation.
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