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2.11.2.2.8 Errors, Mistakes, Omissions

Date Published

The description must be construed in accordance with the general principles applying to patent specifications.

In general, if examiners are capable of construing a specification despite some mistakes or omissions, they may assume that the proper addressee, and the courts before which the specification may be brought, will also be capable of doing so.

In AMP v Utilux (1971) 45 ALJR 123, at page 128, McTiernan J stated that:

"Specifications very frequently contain mistakes; they also have omissions. But if a man skilled in the art can easily rectify the mistakes and can readily supply the omissions, the patent will not be held to be invalid. The test to be applied for the purpose of ascertaining whether a man skilled in the art can readily correct the mistakes or readily supply the omissions, has been stated to be this: Can he rectify the mistakes and supply the omissions without the exercise of any inventive faculty? If he can, then the description of the specification is sufficient. If he cannot, the patent will be void for insufficiency."

Similarly, examiners should not expect, nor insist, that an invention be described with a degree of precision which is not required by those skilled in the art.

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