2121.04 Apparatus and Articles — What Constitutes Enabling Prior Art [R-10.2019]

PICTURES MAY CONSTITUTE AN “ENABLING DISCLOSURE”

Pictures and drawings may be sufficiently enabling to put the public in the possession of the article pictured. Therefore, such an enabling picture may be used to reject claims to the article. However, the picture must show all the claimed structural features and how they are put together. In re Bager, 47 F.2d 951, 953, 8 USPQ 484, 486 (CCPA 1931) (“Description for the purposes of anticipation can be by drawings alone as well as by words.”) (citing Jockmus v. Leviton, 28 F.2d 812 (2d Cir. 1928)). See also MPEP § 2125 for a discussion of drawings as prior art.