How does PCT Rule 65 affect the assessment of inventive step?
PCT Rule 65 provides guidance on how to approach prior art when assessing inventive step. According to MPEP 1878.01(a)(2):
“For the purposes of Article 33(3), the international preliminary examination shall take into consideration the relation of any particular claim to the prior art as a whole. It shall take into consideration the claim’s relation not only to individual documents or parts thereof taken separately but also its relation to combinations of such documents or parts of documents, where such combinations are obvious to a person skilled in the art.”
This means that examiners must consider both individual prior art documents and their combinations when assessing inventive step, as long as those combinations would be obvious to a person skilled in the art.
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