Judges fighting litigation with Supreme Court's "obvious" patent ruling

You might recall that the Supreme Court recently handed down a decision which loosened the definition of "obvious" as applied to patent interpretation, saying that if a person of ordinary skill could "fit the teaching of multiple patents together like pieces of a puzzle," the patent is obvious and unenforceable. That decision, which has been called the most important patent ruling in decades, is starting to affect several longstanding patent disputes, most notably a case brought against Real Networks in 2003 by a company called Friskit. In the first instance of a judge applying the new rule, Friskit's patents have been deemed unenforceable as obvious, a change from an earlier ruling allowing the case to go forward. Friskit is of course considering an appeal, but we wouldn't be surprised to see a lot more of these suits decided early on the basis of obviousness.

[Via TechDirt]

[mikey @ Aug 1st 2007 5:06PM]

wow, that's an outdated picture.

[Nathan Clark @ Aug 1st 2007 4:59PM]

That's the old supreme court. Is engadget behind the times?

[schwed @ Aug 1st 2007 5:19PM]

That's the old Court only in that most of them are eligible for the senior discount at the Country Kitchen. Alito is in the upper right, so the picture is from no later than January 2006.

[Ray-- @ Aug 1st 2007 4:57PM]

everything seems obvious in hindsight....

[andy @ Aug 1st 2007 5:09PM]

Says one patent atty to the next.


Just after KSR, I had a rejection in which an Examiner didn't assert that every limitation was taught by a reference and didn't take official notice of any limitations, but then said, "It would have been obvious to modify the teachings of the XXX reference to obtain the present invention as claimed."

Um, I think that's why the hindsight prohibition exists there fella.


In short, this suit is not dead. You must PROPERLY interpret KSR which simply states that you need not find an explicit teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art to combine a group of references to obtain the present invention. However, since it's so new and judges dislike patent cases in the first place because they're time consuming and complex, it is a good excuse to axe it and send it on to the appeals court, at least until the law gets settled as to the interpretation of KSR.

The appeals court will interpret KSR, say the summary judgement is inappropriate, and send it back for a trial. KSR is just prolonging the case in actuality.

[Collin @ Aug 2nd 2007 1:43PM]

Wait, what? Alito and Roberts...whats wrong?

[paul34 @ Aug 1st 2007 5:20PM]

Ah, nice to see there's at least one government institution which still possesses that funny thing called "common sense."

[Stephen @ Aug 1st 2007 5:25PM]

It's not outdated. That's what the people who make all of those important decisions actually look like. Scary, huh?

[Victor @ Aug 1st 2007 5:37PM]

They changed the picture... the first one still hand Sandra Day O'Connor and chief justice William Rehnquist

[Revrant2394 @ Aug 1st 2007 5:43PM]

I can't believe I'm actually saying this, hold me, I may faint.

Go Supreme Court!

[Dan @ Aug 1st 2007 5:58PM]

It's loljudge!

[Dom1nion @ Aug 1st 2007 6:00PM]

I feel sorry for the poor guy on the far right. He only has one leg, and as for the scary looking fella with the altitude problem and funny collar... Would you feel safe if he was presiding on your case.

[Danger @ Aug 1st 2007 6:21PM]

Shouldn't Judge John Roberts be having a seizure?

[Brian @ Aug 2nd 2007 9:48AM]

Wow... good move by the supreme court!