Nonobviousness: The Scope and Content of the Prior Art

This lesson focuses on one of the factual inquiries underlying the legal determination of nonobviousness: the scope and content of the prior art. It assumes that you are familiar with the patentability requirement of novelty under the pre-AIA version of 35 U.S.C. § 102 and with the basic framework of the obviousness analysis. If you would like a review of the basic framework for determining obviousness, you may want to do the lesson on "Basic Concepts of Nonobviousness" before you complete this lesson. After completing this lesson you should have a better understanding of how to determine the scope and content of the prior art so as to assess obviousness.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the lesson, the student will be able to:

1. Explain the relationship between sections 102 and 103 of the Patent Act.
2. Describe the difference in which prior art references are considered in the novelty and nonobviousness analyses.
3. Describe the difference in how prior art references are evaluated for novelty and nonobviousness purposes.
4. Explain how to apply the analogous arts test.