teach away

present singular third person teaches away · participle present teaching away · participle past taught away · past taught away

1. lawIn patent law, to describe the solution to a problem in a way that excludes a particular alternative to solving that problem addressed by a later invention.

   Disclosed examples and preferred embodiments do not constitute a teaching away from a broader disclosure or nonpreferred embodiments.

   1997, J. Michael Thesz, Manual of Patent Examining Procedure, page 163

   2 more examples

   A statement that a particular combination is not a preferred embodiment does not teach away absent clear discouragement of that combination.

   2007, Bainbridge Lipscomb, Anthony William Deller, Lipscomb's Walker on Patents: Volume 9, page 1034

   By focusing specifically on the Weissman method, which arguably taught away from the invention, the Federal Circuit court avoided to discuss the more general prior art probing methods the applicants had actually used.

   1998, Philippe Georges Ducor, Patenting the Recombinant Products of Biotechnology, page 49