I found this case while searching for recent tendencies in the Supreme Court’s holdings regarding patent protection. In KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., the Supreme Court overthrows a Federal Circuit decision on how to determine “obviousness” of a new invention, thereby rejecting the Federal Circuit’s test and establishing a new “common sense” standard. The Supreme Court’s standard for obviousness is lower, hence, makes it easier to challenge a patent.

I found the case interesting, even though we haven’t discussed the specific requirements for patentability in clase, mainly due to 2 reasons:

1. It is again en example where the Supreme Court is willing to reject a solution found by the Fed. Cir. to “go its own way.”

2. For me, the case indicates a general tendency for lower IP protection, at least in the context of patents, which might be to some extent caused by the misuse of patents by patent trolls.