Patent Obviousness: The Still Evolving Standard, or Is It Back to the Future?

Foley partners, Barry Grossman and Jeanne Gills will both be participating in the BNA and the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law’s conference entitled Patent Obviousness: The Still Evolving Standard, or Is It Back to the Future? taking place on October 1 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Arlington, Virginia.

Barry Grossman, partner in the Mechanical & Electromechanical Technologies and Trademark, Copyright & Advertising Practices will be co-chairing the entire program. In addition, he will also be participate as a panelist in the entitled, “Old Supreme Court Case Law – Has it been resurrected and Will litigators begin citing these old cases?”

Jeanne Gills, partner, vice-chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Litigation Practice and co-team leader of the Trademark and Copyright Litigation Team will also be presenting at the event. Her presentation is entitled, “Court decisions following and discussing KSR.”

BNA and the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law bring together at this conference esteemed patent experts, in-house counsel, judges, and an official from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to analyze and debate the impact of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in KSR v. Teleflex, what it means, and how it will affect corporate patent portfolios.

• Does KSR signal that the patent obviousness standard is still evolving, or are we, in effect, being taken back to the future?
• Will the “flash of genius” or “synergism” test be revived?
• Will we see the resurrection of “old” law that has been rarely cited in recent years?