So far, the meaning of obviousness as it relates to patents
is anything but obvious. It is one of
the essential requirements that need to be met by a patent application. Simply, obviousness and anticipation are key
elements that can lead to the declination of a patent application. In this post, I would like to specifically
touch on what exactly obviousness is and how it is applied every day to
potential patented inventions.
The easy way to think about obviousness is to understand that
obvious “inventions” should not be granted patent rights. An obvious invention is something that would
not be hard to invent given a prior art.
Using the example from class, the invention of the chair made of metal
would be an obvious derivative invention of a chair made of wood. The important thing to note when assessing
the obviousness of a patent is to think of how easy was the processing of
conceiving the new invention.
Putting the ambiguous definition of obviousness in context,
it is what drives people to invent and innovate. If a person is given a patent and a new,
insignificant improvement is made on it and is granted a patent, the first
patent is essentially useless. When this
happens, individuals are less likely to want to invent things given that they
can soon be found obsolete. I hope you
found this post beneficial and keep visiting my blog for newer posts on
obviousness. Thanks!
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