Writing the Detailed Description

AuthorRonald D. Slusky
Pages285-296
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Writing the Detailed Description
The Detailed Description, along with its accompanying Drawings, is
a second telling of the problem-solution story. Actually, the Detailed
Description illustrates the story rather than simply telling it.
The Background and Summary of many patents do a good job of tell-
ing the invention story. However, the invention often disappears from
view once the Detailed Description starts up. The reader is set loose to
negotiate an expanse of details without being shown how they relate to
the invention story.
A Detailed Description that does not continue to focus on the inven-
tion story misses an opportunity to help the reading audience better
understand the invention. The fact that “it’s all in there somewhere”
only satisfies the minimum legal requirement of enablement.1 It does not
guarantee that the reader will be able to align the broad statements in the
Background and Summary with the specifics in the Detailed Description.
Most of the details in the Detailed Description (and Drawings) do not
illustrate the invention per se. Their purpose is to provide an enabling
disclosure—showing particular implementations of functional blocks,
explaining the overall context in which the invention is implemented,
and so forth. Even in a moderately simple Detailed Description it may
not be at all clear which aspects of the disclosed embodiment(s) corre-
sponds to the elements of the invention unless the correspondence is
explicitly pointed out.
The Detailed Description, then, should not be a flat, featureless field
of undifferentiated details. It should be an attention-grabbing landscape
with a central focus and clearly delineated features that stand out from
the overall setting.
The Detailed Description as Expansion
of the Background/Summary
Many attorneys write the Detailed Description before the Background
and Summary. There is much to be said, however, for writing the
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