Regeneron and Illumina: a case for (and against) ranges

Insufficiency in patents, especially in emerging and complex technologies, can be a real problem for patent applicants. They are keen to progress to filing for obvious reasons and yet are expected to disclose how the invention works to its fullest extent. Problems arise in cases where a patent claim seeks to reserve a range of some sort. Recent judgments of the English Patents Court and the UK Supreme Court have suggested that this is not a trivial problem in most cases of analysis. The upshot appears to be that a range patent is not to be struck down as insufficient simply because a range exists. Much depends upon the importance of the range to the claim or, in the Illumina case, whether mention or the existence of a range is in any way relevant. An analysis of two recent judgments in the UK concerning sufficiency of disclosure sheds considerable light on the current ambit of legal thinking in this area of patent law.