102/103 Prior Art and Analogous Arts

Patent Law – Professor Merges

10.18.2012

Sources of 102/103 Art

• 35 USC 103: “differences between subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art”

• Graham: “scope and content of the prior art”

• What is “the prior art” for purposes of 103?

§ 103. Conditions for patentability; non-obvious subject matter

(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. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.

Relationship between 102 and 103

All that is obvious in light of the prior art

All section 102 prior art

Gradual expansion of 102/103 Prior art

• 102(a): not controversial• 102(b)

–The problem of “prior art” that is not

actually in existence prior to the invention

Recall section 103: “. . . At the time the invention was made . . .”

§ 103. Conditions for patentability; non-obvious subject matter

(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. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.

Pfaff v. Wells

Pfaff on sale activity

Pfaff Critical Date

Pfaff Invention

Date

Pfaff Filing Date

What if Pfaff had filed a claim that was novel?

• On sale: Invention with 3 elements, A, B and C

• File claim: 4 elements, A, B, C and D

• Element D makes the claim NOVEL

• But what about section 103?

Relationship between 102 and 103

All that is obvious in light of the section 102(b) prior art

All section 102(b) prior art

In re Foster (1965):

102(b) IS a proper source of 103 prior art

In re Bass, 474 F.2d 1276, 177 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 178 (C.C.P.A. 1973)

–102(g) IS a proper source of 103 prior art

In re Foster, 343 F.2d 980, 988, 145 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 166 (C.C.P.A. 1965):

[T]he contention seems to be that 102(b) has no applicability where the invention is not completely disclosed in a single patent or publication, that is to say where the rejection involves the addition to the disclosure of the reference of the ordinary skill of the art or the disclosure of another reference which indicates what those of ordinary skill in the art are presumed to know, and to have known for more than a year before the application was filed. . . .

In re Foster (cont’d)

On logic and principle we think this contention is unsound, and we also believe it is contrary to the patent law as it has actually existed since at least 1898.

First, as to principle, . . . we cannot see that it makes any difference how [the public] came into … possession [of the information], whether by a public use, a sale, a single patent or publication, or by combinations of one or more of the foregoing. In considering this principle we assume, of course, that by these means the invention has become obvious to that segment of the “public” having ordinary skill in the art.. . . .

Relationship between 102 and 103

All that is obvious in light of the section 102(e) prior art

All section 102(e) prior art

Hazeltine Research, Inc. V. Brenner, 382 U.S. 252 (1965)

102(e) as a source of 103 Prior Art

Prior art

Regis filed Dec. 23. 1957

The Wallace patent, however, was

pending in the Patent Office when the Regis application was filed. The Wallace application had been pending since March 24, 1954, nearly three years and nine months before Regis filed his application and the Wallace patent was issued on February 4, 1958, 43 days after Regis filed his application.

While we think petitioners’ argument with regard to § 102(e) is interesting, it provides no reason to depart from the plain holding and reasoning in the Milburn case. The basic reasoning upon which the Court decided the Milburn case applies equally well here. When Wallace filed his application, he had done what he could to add his disclosures to the prior art. -- 732

What about 102(f)?

All that is obvious in light of the section 102(f) prior art

All section 102(f) prior art

Oddzon Prods v. Just Toys, Inc.

• Design patent

–Same standards for 102 and 103, in general

Is 102(f) “prior art”?

Is 102(f) more like 102(a), (b), (e), and (g)?

– Or more like (c) and (d) – “loss of right?– Or not like any other provision?

• Dictum in In re Bass: 102(f) is not about “prior art”

Oddzon holding

• District ct: prior disclosures to eventual patentee were 102(f) prior art

– Recall Campbell v Spectrum Automation– “belt buckle” case

• Affirmed here: continues expansion of 102 art for 103 purposes

Obscure prior art and internal research teams

• Expansion of 102/103 prior art

• Technical definition of “inventive entities”

• Problem!

Inventive Entities

Inventor A

Inventive Entities - Overlap

Inventor A

Inventors A + B

Inventive Entities – Overlap II

Inventors A + B

Inventors A + B + C

Other Variations

A + B

A + CB + C

A + B + C + D

Inventive Entities - Overlap

Inventor A

Inventors A + B

Application 1

Inventive Entities - Overlap

Inventor A

Inventors A + B

Application 1

Application 2

The 1984 Amendment to 103

• Added what is now 103(c)

“Subject matter developed by another [inventive entity], which qualifies as prior art only under 102(e), (f) or (g), shall NOT preclude patentability where subject matter and claimed invention were owned by same person or subject to obligation of assignment to same person at time invention was made”

“[O]wned by same person or under obligation to assign”: the

importance of Contracts!

• Same prior art that would invalidate patent when created by independent parties will be REMOVED from prior art by contractual agreement by all parties

Legislative activity

• Cooperative Research and Technology Act of 2004, P.L. 108-453, Dec., 2004

• Extended section 103(c) to cover situation of contractual joint research projects

The same benefit available under 35 USC § 103(c) will also apply to joint research teams where “the claimed invention was made by or on behalf of parties to a joint research agreement that was in effect on or before the date the claimed invention was made.”

Analogous Arts

Hetherington “Bladder

Bags”

United States Patent 4,683,949 Sydansk ,   et al. August 4, 1987 Conformance improvement in a subterranean hydrocarbon-bearing formation using a polymer gel

Conformance improvement is achieved in a subterranean hydrocarbon-bearing formation using a gel. The gel components are combined at the surface and injected into the desired treatment zone via a wellbore

Inventors: Sydansk; Robert D. (Littleton, CO); Argabright; Perry A. (Larkspur, CO) Assignee: Marathon Oil Company (Findlay, OH)

Analogous arts: tests

• From same field?

• Pertinent to problem solved?

Sydansk reference

• Board of Appeals: same field (oil extraction)

• Federal Circuit: wrong!

–Storage vs extraction

Sydansk: Same Problem?• Differences in conditions governing

problem to be solved

–Underground conditions different from storage tanks

–PHOSITA faced with Clay’s problem would not look in oil extraction art – AGREE?

Counterpoint: In re Paulsen

• Hinge in laptop computer claim

• Other mechanical arts relevant; “problem not unique to portable computers . . .”

–Importance of problem focus

In re Klein, 647 F.3d 1343 (Fed Cir 2011)

• Invention for bird nectar mixing device

• Prior art cited was from fields where solids were mixed in fixed proportions

In re Klein, at 1350-51Held: The purpose of [prior art] is to separate solid

objects. An inventor considering the problem of “making a nectar feeder with a movable divider to prepare different ratios of sugar and water for different animals,” would not have been motivated to consider any of these references when making his invention,*…since none of these three references shows a partitioned container that is adapted to receive water or contain it long enough to be able to prepare different ratios in the different compartments

“General Principles”

• In re Mariani, 177 F.2d 293Cust. & Pat.App. 1949

• Application was properly rejected with respect to certain claims for patent for fruit juice extractor, where features claimed to be novel were not in fact novel, but were scientific necessities, or, at least, scientifically desirable and well known to those skilled in the art, and had been used in a fishing reel and in automobile jacks.

State Contracting & Engineering Corp. v. Condotte America, Inc.

346 F.3d 1057C.A.Fed. (Fla.),2003

• Technology: Highway construction, integrated column and pile

• Reference: Xanthakos, “Slurry Walls”

Xanthakos Reference

• Slurry Walls (McGraw-Hill Series in Modern Structures)

• Author(s): Petros P. XanthakosRelease Date: September, 1979

[A] factfinder could reasonably conclude that the inventor's field was the use of integrated column and pile structures to provide support. The written descriptions of the two patents indicate that the inventions are directed to an integral column and pile for use in building structures in sandy soil, and there is at least a question of fact as to whether Xanthakos is within the field of integral column and pile support structures, since Xanthakos teaches a "prefounded column" consisting of a column that merges with the pile when the concrete of the pile hardens around the column, and explains that the prefounded columns are used to support a superstructure.

KSR: P. 674

When a work is available in one field of endeavor, design incentives and other market forces can prompt variations of it, either in the same field or a different one. If a person of ordinary skill can implement a predictable variation, § 103 likely bars its patentability.