Opinion ID: 3173494
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: written description in the ’551 application

Text: Sufficiency of written description is a question of fact, which we review for substantial evidence. Ariad Pharm., Inc. v. Eli Lilly & Co., 598 F.3d 1336, 1351 (Fed. Cir. 2010) (en banc). Claims must be sufficiently supported by the written description of a patent, such that the disclosure “reasonably conveys to those skilled in the art that the inventor had possession of the claimed subject matter as of the filing date.” Id. To receive the benefit of an earlier application in an interference, the application must contain an adequate written description of at least one embodiment of the count. Tobinick v. Olmarker, 753 F.3d 1220, 1227 (Fed. Cir. 2014). ITRI argues that the Board erred in designating PacBio the senior party because the ’551 application lacks a written description of the Count, in particular, any express or inherent disclosure of using mismatched base pairs to determine modified base positions. According to ITRI, paragraph 17 of the ’551 application, including its reference to comparing the forward and reverse strands, merely describes using base-pair matches, not mismatches, to confirm the reliability of sequencing data. ITRI also asserts that the ’551 application disclaims the bisulfite embodiment of the Count because the ’551 application states that its methods do not “rel[y] on the similarity of uracil to thymine.” Appellant’s Br. 41 (quoting ’551 application ¶ 23). ITRI explains that the Count relies on the similarity of U and T, because, when U is the modified base after bisulfite treatment, the claimed method relies on the fact that both U and T pair with A in sequencing. PacBio responds that the Board correctly found that the ’551 application discloses an embodiment of the Count 24 INDUSTRIAL TECH. RESEARCH INST. v. PAC. BIOSCIENCES because it expressly discloses (1) a CPLM DNA sequencing template, (2) the use of bisulfite treatment, and (3) the comparison of forward and reverse strands of the CPLM to identify modified bases. PacBio argues that the Count does not require using mismatches to determine the positions of modified bases. PacBio also argues in the alternative that, even if the Count did require the use of mismatches, the Board’s factual finding of adequate written description is supported by substantial evidence, which includes the ’551 application’s express disclosures and the detailed testimony of PacBio’s expert witness explaining the disclosures of the ’551 application. As indicated supra, we conclude that the Board properly interpreted the Count as requiring the use of mismatched base pairs in detecting modified base positions. Under that construction, we conclude that substantial evidence supports the Board’s finding that the ’551 application adequately describes an embodiment of the Count. The ’551 application describes methods of detecting modified bases. The application discloses a CPLM template, as well as the use of bisulfite to convert C, but not mC, to U. J.A. 918–20. The application defines “modified bases” as including “methylated bases” and “bisulfiteconverted bases.” J.A. 919. Importantly, the application states in paragraph 17 that “sequence reads from the sense or ‘forward’ strand can be compared to sequence reads from the antisense or ‘reverse’ strand for the same nucleic acid template to further validate the existence of one or more modified bases in the template nucleic acid.” J.A. 918 (emphases added). That is an explicit reference to comparing the forward and reverse strands and using base-pair matches and mismatches to detect modified bases. Although other portions of the ’551 application describe prior-art consensus sequencing technique, those disclosures do not alter the explicit reference to “compar[ing]” the forward and reverse strand sequences to determine “the existence of INDUS. TECH. RESEARCH INST. v. PAC. BIOSCIENCES 25 one or more modified bases.” Likewise, we find ITRI’s argument that paragraph 23 of the application disclaims the bisulfite embodiment of the Count to be unpersuasive. We therefore affirm the Board’s finding that the ’551 application provides an adequate written description of at least one embodiment of the Count.