Intellectual Property Law
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4/26/2021
VerifiedHi, and thank you for asking at JustAnswer. I’m Anthony and I will serve as your legal expert. I’ve practiced patent law for over 25 years, worked for one of America’s leading firms (AmJur 100) and graduated from a top (tier 1) law school. My goal is to provide a correct answer to your question in the manner I would treat a friend that asked about a similar issue at an informal gathering. JustAnswer provides expert opinions on general legal issues; this does not create an attorney-client relationship and is not the same as full-service counsel from a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction. Per the rules of JustAnswer and my state bar, I cannot form an attorney-client relationship via this site. I will provide an expert opinion, but cannot complete forms or perform other tasks that would be defined as legal representation, as I may not be licensed in your jurisdiction. The site makes automated premium service offers to allow us to speak about the issue via a phone call – those offers are automatically generated by JustAnswer, and do not emanate from me; while you may accept that if you prefer to communicate via voice, it is fine to continue with our typed interaction.
I recognize your need to know how the law applies, and am sorry that you are having difficulty with your legal issue. I am here to assist you. Please give me a few minutes to review statutes pertaining to your situation and to type an initial response; my answer may have underlines which are links to websites for more information.
In order to receive a patent, the application must be enabling, new (102), useful and non-obvious (103). A non-obviousness rejection combines related prior art following MPEP examination guidelines. The rejection will usually be stated as the invention is rendered obvious "by [Smith '561] in view of [Jones '364]." It is a prima facie argument, in that the Application may traverse the rejection by presenting an argument based on case law, or use the description in the application to narrow the claims to overcome the refusal. So the argument stands until the Applicant convinces the Examiner it is either (a) incorrect, or (b) [usually the better argument] that the claims have limitations that are not obvious.
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