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Comment by _rpd | Hacker News Reader

She could try, but the patents might be found to be 'non-enabling' and thus invalid. Patents are supposed to teach a reader how to make the invention.

In particular, it seems that the microfluidics stuff needs new inventions to make it work in practice. So presumably those aren't described in the patents. Although it wouldn't be the first time that management overlooked solutions provided by their own researchers.

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Are patents _required_ to teach a reader how to make the invention? That seems like an interesting requirement that I hadn't heard of before, and I've got a patent with my name on it myself.

Yes that's the entire point of patents. To pay people for sharing their ideas with others. If your patent can't do that you don't get paid.

35 U.S.C. § 112(a) ...

> The specification [of the patent] shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same

It's the raison d'etre of patents. A time-limited monopoly in exchange for full documentation of the invention for the long term public good.

Huh. Thanks for including the relevant part of the US Code. I'll be honest, I had no idea it was a requirement. I've read plenty of patents where the patent definitely would not function to let someone build the invention in question. I wonder how strictly this is enforced.

the deal was: you document your invention for the good of humanity and we give you a 25 years exclusivity. It was an encyclopedic endeavor.

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