teach away

English

Verb

teach away (third-person singular simple present teaches away, present participle teaching away, simple past and past participle taught away)

1. (law) In 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.
   • 2007, Bainbridge Lipscomb, Anthony William Deller, Lipscomb's Walker on Patents: Volume 9, page 1034:

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

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

     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.

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

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