Not So Common Sense? Reliance on Common Sense to Establish Obviousness
A recent written decision of the Patent Trial and Appeals Board sheds light on how the PTAB may treat common sense as used in obviousness arguments, reports Jones Day in its PTAB Litigation Blog.
Albert Liou discusses the recent case of Kranos Corporation v. Riddell, Inc., which involves the claimed invention of a sports helmet with a quick release connector for the faceguard. An important claim element was the “releasable coupler mechanism.”
“The Kranos decision teaches Petitioners to avoid relying only upon ‘common sense’ as a reason for combining references.” Liou writes. “Rather, an effective Petition should lead the PTAB to conclude that ‘common sense’ supports obviousness, after presenting the PTAB with a persuasive showing of why the elements or structure of one reference should be combined with those of another.”