Distinguishing between prophetic and working examples in a patent application
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has published a notice in the Federal Register reminding applicants that patent applications must properly present examples in a manner that clearly distinguishes between prophetic examples that describe predicted experimental results and working examples that report actual experimental results.
The distinction should be clear for purposes of the written description and enablement requirements and to comply with the applicant’s duty of disclosure. The notice also sets forth best practices for distinguishing prophetic and working examples.