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Not So Obvious After All: Patent Law's Nonobviousness Requirement, Ksr, And The Fear Of Hindsight Bias, Glynn S. Lunney Jr., Christian T. Johnson

Georgia Law Review

Before the creation of the Federal Circuit in 1982,
nonobviousness served as the primary gatekeeper for
patents. When patent holders sued for infringement and
lost, more than sixty percent of the time, they lost on the
grounds that their patent was obvious. With the advent of
the Federal Circuit, nonobviousness became a much less
difficult hurdle to surmount. From 1982 until 2005, when
patent holders sued for infringement and lost, obviousness
was the reason in less than fifteen percent of the cases.
While obviousness remained formally a requirement of
patent protection, there can be little doubt that the Federal
Circuit …