The USA Supreme Court is currently hearing a case that could have enormous implications for patent holders in the USA and for companies, no matter where they operate.
The case is KSR International v. Teleflex Inc., and revolves
around the issue of whether an invention is obvious and therefore ineligible
for a patent.
Teleflex Inc. sued KSR in 2002 for infringing its patent on
a gas pedal. Teleflex combined a gas pedal that can be adjusted for the height
of the driver with one that controls acceleration electronically, rather than
through a mechanical cable. KSR subsequently made a similar pedal. And so Teleflex
sued KSR.
One of KSR’s arguments in defence is that the combination of the two features was an obvious one and as a result the patent was invalid.
The difficulty here is that if the USA Supreme Court sides in favour of KSR and finds that Teleflex’s patent in invalid, it will not only set an important precedent for future patent applications but it will open the barn doors and give some companies an incredible weapon to attack patents which have been issued in the past. However, it is unquestionable that the USA Patent Office has issued some very questionable patents in the past, especially (in my view) in the area of business method patents and the time may be ripe to have some new, and more restrictive, law on what is or is not obvious vis-à-vis inventions.
Stay tuned.
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