USPTO Issues New Obviousness Guidelines

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has released new guidelines for its patent examiners in light of several precedential court rulings that have been issued since KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex Inc. The guidelines were published in the September 1, 2010 issue of the Federal Register. USPTO Director David Kappos says, "Now that a body of post-KSR case law is available to guide office personnel and practitioners as to the boundaries between obviousness and nonobviousness, this update can be used to compare and contrast situations in which claimed subject matter was found to have been obvious with those cases in which it was determined not to have been obvious." Members of the public are invited to comment on the guidelines and offer suggestions.