Atlas Powder Co. v. E.I. du Pont De Nemours & Co.
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
750 F.2d 1569 (1984)
Atlas Powder Co. (Atlas) (plaintiff) held a patent on an improved blasting agent and sued Du Pont (defendant) for infringement after Du Pont developed its own improved agent. Du Pont argued Atlas's patent was invalid because its broad list of possible chemical elements, combined with only a handful of "prophetic" (untested) examples, did not enable a person of ordinary skill to actually make the claimed invention. The district court disagreed and found the claims enabled and valid; Du Pont appealed.
Whether a patent claim is invalid for lack of enablement merely because the claim's broad scope encompasses some non-functional or non-optimal products, or requires some experimentation to practice.