Has U.S. patent protection been diminished by the U.S. Supreme Court? Both the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Federal courts are grappling with this issue in reaction to the April 30th U.S. Supreme Court case, KSR v. Teleflex. Public reaction to KSR is mixed with some applauding and some shocked by KSR’s shakeup of ostensibly settled patent law principles.
35 U.S.C. � 103 sets the U.S. patent law standard for “obviousness.” Under �103, a patent claim cannot be issued 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 of ordinary skill in the art.” Simply stated, an invention is obvious (and thus unpatentable) if several references can be combined to create the invention. KSR addressed the fundamental issues of when and how these references may be combined.
