Law360, New York (August 20, 2009) -- Trouble is brewing over the way the Federal Circuit treats obviousness challenges to chemical compositions. In a string of recent decisions, the Federal Circuit violates Supreme Court precedent by seeking a threshold showing of motivation inapplicable to all other classes of patentable subject matter.
According to these decisions, “an obviousness argument based on structural similarity between claimed and prior art compounds ‘clearly depends on a preliminary finding that one of ordinary skill in the...
