Dans la cause Biomedino, LLC v. Waters Technologies Corporation, et al. (June 18, 2007), la Federal Circuit des États-Unis a affrimé l’invalidité sous l’article 112, second paragraphe, d’une revendication visant un appareil de regénération moléculaire incluant « control means for automatically operating valves ».
Les seules références dans la description à un « control means » étant un block identifié « Control » à la Figure 6 et une mention que le procédé de regénération « may be controlled automatically by known differential pressure, valving and control equipment », la description ne décrirait pas assez de structure pour cet élément revendiqué.
Selon le Juge:
Essentially this case asks the following question: for purposes of § 112, ¶ 6, is sufficient corresponding structure disclosed when the specification simply recites that a claimed function can be performed by known methods or using known
equipment where prior art of record and the testimony of experts suggest that known methods and equipment exist?
. . . In Atmel it was not the fact that one skilled in the art was aware of known circuit techniques that resulted in a conclusion that sufficient structure was recited. Rather, it was the inclusion in the written description of the title of the article which itself described the structure for a « known circuit technique. » Expert testimony was used to show what the title of the article would convey to one skilled in the art—in that case it was « the precise structure of the means recited in the specification. »
. . . The inquiry [here] is whether one of skill in the art would understand the specification itself to disclose a structure, not simply whether that person would be capable of implementing a structure. Med. Instrumentation, 344 F.3d at 1212 (citing Atmel, 198 F.3d at 1382). Accordingly, a bare statement that known techniques or methods can be used does not disclose structure. To conclude otherwise would vitiate the language of the statute requiring « corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification. »