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2.11.2.2.7 The Description Construed as a Technical Document

Date Published

In Decor Corp v Dart Industries 13 IPR 385 it was stated:

“The body [of the specification], apart from the preamble, is there to instruct those skilled in the art concerned in the carrying out of the invention; provided it is comprehensible to, and does not mislead, a skilled reader, the language used is seldom of importance.”

The description is more particularly a technical disclosure and is construed with regard to the person skilled in the art:

"But the body of the specification is a document giving working instructions to working men - highly skilled working men with high technical qualifications, no doubt, in the case of many modern fields of industry. It is to such persons and not to grammarians or lawyers or even expert witnesses that specifications are considered to be addressed, and they ought not, I think, to be construed as if they were Acts of Parliament or conveyances or wills or instruments of that description. The working man in whose hands the specification is assumed to have been placed must also, I think, be assumed to be a man who is going to try to achieve success and not one who is looking for difficulties or seeking failure."

Unifloc Reagents Ltd v Newstead Colliery Ltd 60 RPC 165.

However, reference may be made to the claims to resolve an ambiguity in the body of the specification (United Shoe Machinery Corp's Application (1939) 57 RPC 71).

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