How does an examiner establish a prima facie case of obviousness?
How does an examiner establish a prima facie case of obviousness?
An examiner establishes a prima facie case of obviousness by demonstrating that the claimed invention would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art. The MPEP provides guidance on this process:
To establish a prima facie case of obviousness, three basic criteria must be met. First, there must be some suggestion or motivation, either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art, to modify the reference or to combine reference teachings. Second, there must be a reasonable expectation of success. Finally, the prior art reference (or references when combined) must teach or suggest all the claim limitations.
The examiner must provide evidence or reasoning for each of these criteria. This typically involves citing prior art references and explaining how they relate to the claimed invention.
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