What is the requirement for commercial success evidence in patent applications?

Commercial success evidence must be commensurate in scope with the claims of the patent application. This means that the evidence of commercial success should be directly related to the claimed features of the invention, not unclaimed features.

As stated in MPEP 716.03(a): “Objective evidence of nonobviousness including commercial success must be commensurate in scope with the claims.” This requirement ensures that the commercial success is attributable to the specific invention as claimed, rather than other factors.

To learn more:

• commercial success
• patent claims
• evidence of nonobviousness
• patent examination