An invention must be both novel and nonobvious to qualify for a patent. Once novelty is established, the inventor must confirm that their invention is nonobvious. Unfortunately, there is no clear and straightforward definition of nonobvious, which has made this term the subject of debate ever since the first patent law was enacted. We can all agree that an invention is either obvious or nonobvious to a hypothetical person having ordinary skill in the art, but the courts have not agreed upon this person’s credentials. Neither advanced academic degrees nor a certain number of years of working experience are by themselves determinative factors. Indeed, too much education or experience can disqualify a person as easily as too little.
This article describes several ways that an invention can be shown to be nonobvious and provides several examples of cases in which these methods have been applied.