Solicitor General to Opine on Landmark Obviousness Case

KSR International v. Teleflex (On Petition for Certiorari).

KSR is challenging the Federal Circuit’s “teaching-suggestion-motivation test” for determining whether two references can be combined in an obviousness rejection.  This test has been a stalwart of Federal Circuit jurisprudence for twenty years.  During that time, however, the Supreme Court has not heard a single obviousness case. 

The case is now on petition for certiorari at the Supreme Court — awaiting the High Court’s decision on whether to hear the case.  Signaling at least a tepid interest in the case, on October 3, 2005, the Court has asked the Solicitor General to file a brief expressing the views of the US Government.  The new Chief Justice (Roberts) took no part in the decision.

At this point, it is likely that the Court will follow the Solicitor General’s recommendations — although it is still unclear what those recommendations will be.

Support for the petition: Respected law professor John Duffy is an attorney of record on the KSR brief, which argues that the CAFC’s obviousness test goes against Supreme Court precedent, against precedent of other circuits, and is bad policy. Professor Duffy is a former clerk of Justice Scalia.

A consortium of five major corporations, including Microsoft, Cisco, and Hallmark have filed as amicus supporting the petition.  Their brief argues that the current structured test for obviousness is too easy a hurdle for patentees and that the formalities of the test undermines courts ability to truly determine whether an invention is obvious to one skilled in the art.

Documents:

• Party Briefs
  • KSR’s Petition for Cert (Including the CAFC and District Court decisions in Appx A & B);
  • Teleflex’s Brief in Opposition
  • KSR Reply Brief (314 KB)
• Amicus Briefs
  • 24 Law Professors in support of petition;
  • Progress Freedom Foundation in support of petition;
  • Microsoft, Cisco, Hallmark, et al. in support of petition.

Links:

• Patently-O Prior Discussion of the CAFC decision;
• Patently-O Prior Discussion of Law Professors Brief.