The US Examination of Nonobviousness after KSR vs. Teleflex with Special Emphasis on DNA-Related Inventions

The year 2007 was an extraordinary year for the US Patent System. In a response to far reaching proposals for significant changes in substantive and procedural patent law the House of Representatives adopted the 2007 Patent Reform Act in September heating up the debates over crucial issues that are now discussed in the US Senate. Moreover, the U.S. Supreme Court turned its attention to patent issues delivering three major patent judgments and granted certiorari to hear another case. Probably the most influential of the 2007 judgments was the decision in KSR v. Teleflex. More than forty years after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Graham v. John Deere developed the basic test for obviousness, the principles that were established in KSR will most likely remain the leading interpretation of the Graham standard for the following years. This article discusses actual and potential impacts of the KSR decision on the assessment of nonobviousness in the US with special emphasis on DNA-related inventions