Appeal 2007-0725
Reexamination Control 90/006,785
Patent 5,073,484
35 USC § 102(b)
“A person shall be entitled to a patent unless ….. the invention was
patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or
in public use or on sale in this country, more than one year prior to the date
of the application for patent in the United States.” 35 USC § 102(b).
To anticipate a claim, a prior art reference must disclose every
limitation of the claimed invention, either expressly or inherently.
Verdegaal Bros. v. Union Oil Co., 814 F.2d 628, 631, 2 USPQ2d 1051, 1053
(Fed. Cir. 1987) and must enable one of skill in the art to make and use the
invention. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Ben Venue Labs. Inc., 246 F.3d
1368, 1378, 58 USPQ 2d 1508, 1516 (Fed. Cir. 2001).
35 USC § 103(a)
“A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically
disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, 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.” 35 USC § 103(a).
In considering whether claims are patentable under 35 USC § 103(a)
we consider the scope and content of the prior art, the differences between
the prior art and the claims at issue, the level of ordinary skill in the
pertinent art and any secondary considerations that would bear upon
obviousness. Graham v. John Deere, 382 US 1, 16 (1966).
11
Page: Previous 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013