Enablement & Obviousness

“[T]here is no absolute requirement for a relied-upon reference to be self enabling in the § 103 [obviousness] context, so long as the overall evidence of what was known at the time of invention establishes that a skilled artisan could have made and used the claimed invention. We have also previously expounded the principle that if an obviousness case is based on a non-selfenabled reference, and no other prior art reference or evidence would have enabled a skilled artisan to make the claimed invention, then the invention cannot be said to have been obvious.” This opinion published April 16, 2021 by the appellate court panel in RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION v. GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY establishes this rule of self enablement for any single reference used to establish obviousness of a claim.