Module 17 2024

Inventive Step (Non-Obviousness)

• Invention must not be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the prior art • Often the hardest part of establishing patentability • Is it obvious to combine a prior-art stent with a prior-art drug that prevents cell proliferation?

23

23

Sufficiency (Written Description and Enablement) • The patent document must teach one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention • A patent claim reciting “a warp engine configured to propel a spaceship faster than the speed of light”

• No amount of disclosure in the patent document will enable this “invention”!

24

24

12