obviousness
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 383 U.S. 39 - United States v. Adams · 1966Most cited · 1,572 citing opinions
known disadvantages in old devices which would naturally discourage the search for new inventions may be taken into account in determining obviousness
How often courts cite the cases defining “obviousness”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “obviousness” — 2,422 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 2 definitions, chronological · 1966–1969
Under § 103, the scope and content of the prior art are to be determined; differences between the prior art and the claims at issue are to be ascertained; and the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art resolved