Intellectual Property

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Intellectual Property

• Boston College Law School
• March 3, 2008
• Patent - Nonobviousness

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Requirements

• (1) Patentable Subject Matter
• (2) Novelty
• (3) Utility
• (4) Nonobviousness
• (5) Enablement

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Nonobviousness

• 35 U.S.C. 103. Conditions for patentability
  non-obvious subject matter.
• A patent may not be obtained though the
  invention is not identically disclosed or
  described as set forth in section 102 if the
  differences between the subject matter sought to
  be patented and the prior art are such that the
  subject matter as a whole would have been obvious
  at the time the invention was made to a person
  having ordinary skill in the art to which said
  subject matter pertains

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Nonobviousness

• Factors in the analysis
• (1) Scope and content of prior art
• (2) Differences between invention and prior art
• (3) Level of ordinary skill in the art
• (4) Secondary considerations
• Commercial success
• Long-felt but unsolved needs
• Failure of others to invent
• Copying by others

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Chisel Plow
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Graham v. John Deere
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KSR v. Teleflex
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Administrative

• Next Assignment
• Finish IV.B.5 Nonobviousness
• Read IV.C.1 Claim Interpretation