The Positive Side of Negative Disclaimers

The patent examiner will conduct a search of the scientific and patent literature, which will now include patent application publications that were not yet published when the patent attorney conducted the patentability search years before, i.e., patent applications filed before, but published after, the filing date of the company's patent application. In one case, a decision to permit addition of a disclaimer to the claims was permitted because the application as originally filed suggested that the applicant possessed the idea of the invention absent the disclaimed subject matter.\n The European patent office acknowledges that it would be unfair to bar patenting the use of the entire group of compounds for treating cancer simply because the application as filed did not contain basis for a limiting amendment excluding the irrelevant use, developing photographic film.