APAA PATENTS COMMITTEE
2007 APAAA, Adelaide, Australia
DETERMINATION OF INVENTIVE STEP IN ASIAN COUNTRIES
Firstly, patentable invention is any technical solution of a problem in any field of human activity which is new or novel, involves an inventive step and is industrially applicable. (Sec. 21, IP CODE)
We shall now be discussing how inventive step is determined in Asian countries and we define “inventive step” as “An invention involves an inventive step if, having regard to the prior art it is not obvious to a person skilled in the art at the time of the filing date or priority date of the application claiming the invention. Inventive step only arises if there is novelty.” (Sec. 24, IP CODE).
Item 1
What are the elements or conditions for determining an inventive step or obviousness in the Philippines?
The elements or conditions in assessing an inventive step the Examiner should normally apply the “problem-solution approach” and there are 3 main stages:
1) determining the closest prior art,
2) establishing the technical problem to be solved; and
3) considering whether or not the claimed invention, starting from the closest prior art and the technical problem, would have been obvious to the skilled person
Item 2
How is the way of creating an invention (i.e. “flash of creative genius”) evaluated regarding an assertion of an inventive step or obviousness in the Philippines? Creating an invention must fulfill the following conditions:
Ø It must show an element of novelty that is some new characteristics that is known in the body of existing knowledge in its technical field.
Ø Once the said criteria is determined then it must show an “inventive step” that could deduced by a person with average knowledge of the technical field;
Ø It must be of practical use; and
Ø The subject matter must be accepted as “patentable” under the national law. In many countries, including Philippines, scientific theories, mathematical methods, plant or animal varieties, discoveries of natural substances, commercial methods, or methods for medical treatment are considered unpatentable subject matters.
Item 3
How is the effect or function of an invention evaluated regarding an assertion of an inventive step or obviousness in the Philippines?
According to our practice, once the technical problem has been formulated using the problem and solution approach, the Examiner has to evaluate whether or not the invention as set out in the claim, is obvious. Deciding that involves answering the question: "What would a person skilled in the art do, when faced with that technical problem and having regard to the state of the art?" It was also mentioned here above that the Examiner starts from the closest prior art and then weigh up the rest of the prior art to determine whether or not there are any indications that would have led a skilled person from the closest prior art to the invention. In doing this factors are used that are referred to as secondary considerations or sub tests.
Sub tests provide indicators or pointers (also called indicia) that help the evaluator/examiner to arrive at a decision.
Despite the usefulness of sub tests, a technical evaluation of the invention remains of primary importance, particularly during the examination procedure. Answers to some sub tests will seldom be available at such an early stage of the procedure; the marketing of products for example is unlikely to have started and the public response will be unknown.
Generally, it will be the "negative" sub tests that will be quoted by the examiner; applicants may reply using "positive" sub tests when arguing against the examiner's opinion. The examiner thus needs to have a thorough knowledge of the sub tests, as well as their uses and limitations.
There are positive sub tests, i.e. those that indicate the presence of inventive step, and negative sub tests, which point to lack of inventive step.
1. Sub-tests that usually provide negative pointers
(a) Aggregation or collocation - The invention consists merely in the juxtaposition (bringing side by side) of known devices or processes, each functioning in its normal way without interacting with the other elements, and not producing any unexpected technical effect.
(b) Simple and straightforward extrapolation from known facts - To extrapolate from already known measures to arrive at the invention is a sign for obviousness.
(c) A change of size, form or proportion - The choice of a particular dimension from a limited range of possibilities and resulting from routine trial and error or arrived at by the application of normal design procedure points towards obviousness.
(d) An exchange of material - The substitution of a newly developed material for one that had been used in a known product, where the properties of the new material indicate that it is likely to be suitable, is a pointer towards obviousness.
(e) Application of a technique known per se - In such a case it has to be established whether success could reasonably have been expected. This is usually the case when the known technique is applied in an analogous situation.
(f) The use of well-known technical equivalents - One should consider whether the use of an equivalent involved particular technical difficulties. If this is not the case, then the test points towards obviousness.
(g) Filling a gap in the state of the art - When the teaching of the prior art is obviously incomplete, and completion thereof would naturally or readily occur to the skilled person, an inventive step has to be ruled out.
(h) Selection from a number of known possibilities without any unexpected technical effect - This comes down to merely choosing from a number of equally likely alternatives.
2. Sub-tests that might provide positive pointers
Technical considerations
(i) Overcoming a technical prejudice
This is normally a persuasive pointer towards "non-obviousness". If there has been disbelief or scepticism by experts towards a particular line of development and the prior art points away from the proposed invention, that is taken as strong support for the existence of an inventive step. However, the applicant must provide evidence to demonstrate the existence of such a prejudice at the priority date of the application. A mere allegation that technical prejudice was present is not sufficient. It must also be shown by the applicant that the technical prejudice was generally known to the world and not just perceived by him only.
(j) The invention overcomes difficulties by means of a new use of a known process, of a known device or known material - This point is taken as a sign of non-obviousness if the difficulties are not resolvable by routine techniques.
(k) Unexpected technical progress or technical advance - This point deals with improvements over the prior art which, although a permanent aim in industry, are not a requirement for patentability, in particular for inventive step. However, this test may be relevant if a long period of research or of attempts to make an improvement have failed to find a better solution. The unexpected technical progress has to be demonstrated in comparison with the closest prior art. Therefore it is sometimes necessary for the applicant to support this pointer with comparative tests. Examples of this pointer are such things as: increase in performance, greater productivity, cheaper and more economical production, simplification of machines or construction and manufacturing methods.
(l) Surprising technical effect - An example of such an effect would be when the various elements of the invention are known individually from different sources in the prior art, but when combined in the particular way of the invention, produce a technical effect that goes beyond what would have been expected from a mere juxtaposition of these known measures (This is sometimes called synergy). This pointer is generally known as "the combination effect". It occurs quite frequently in chemical inventions.
Another occasion where we might speak of a surprising effect would be when a known method or means is successfully used for an entirely different purpose.
It is known that high frequency power can be used in inductive butt-welding. It should therefore be obvious that high-frequency power could also be used in conductive butt-welding with similar effect; an inventive step would exist in this case. This would also be the case if high-frequency power were used for the continuous conductive butt welding of coiled strip but without removing scale (such scale removal being on the face of it necessary in order to avoid arcing between the welding contact and the strip). The unexpected additional effect is that scale removal is found to be unnecessary because at high frequency the current is supplied in a predominantly capacitive manner via the scale, which forms a dielectric.
Care must be taken to ensure that all technical effects are indeed caused by the features of a claim. Often an applicant argues that his invention provides some effect, but it turns out that the effect is not provided by the features of the claim, but by some other feature. For his arguments to be relevant, this other feature must be included in the claim.
It might be argued that unexpected or surprising effects are subjective tests since different people react differently to a given result. However, insofar as the effect can be measured objectively (e.g. a greater efficiency or yield is produced) and shown to be different from what one would expect from the prior art, it is not subjective.
(m) Professional recognition or technical esteem - The opinion of experts and their admiration of the invention are pointers towards non obviousness of the invention. Of course, if those experts are employed by or are related commercially to the applicant, one should be careful about their opinions.
Item 4
How is the commercial success evaluated regarding an assertion of an inventive step or obviousness in the Philippines?
Commercial or economic success
Commercial success can only occur after the invention has been on the market for a while (usually after the examination of the application has finished). Thus it cannot have influenced the design of the invention before the filing date and so cannot normally be used as an argument for inventive step. Commercial success might be derived from a number of factors, e.g. first to the market, skilful positioning, good selling techniques, effective advertising, not to mention occasional good luck. However, if it can be proved that commercial success is coupled with another pointer such as the satisfaction of a long felt want and stems from technical features of the invention, it should be accepted as being relevant.
Some of the pointers for a commercial success are:
Ø Licence acquired from the inventor - It suggests an existing need for the invention and the related commercial interest. If the rights were acquired by competitors of the inventor, they will have carefully examined the value of the invention before entering into any agreement. Usually they will not be distracted by selling techniques or good advertising. It could be a sign that the competitors are convinced that they could not win an opposition or an infringement suit, thus pointing at non-obviousness. However, it might also be the cheapest and most convenient way for a competitor to make money while avoiding trouble, since the cost of defending an infringement case in court, even against a patent thought to be invalid, could be greater than the cost of a licence. In other instances, licences could also be exchanged between competitors.
Ø Copying or infringement of the invention by a competitor - It relates to the concept of commercial success. The fact that someone copies an invention, regardless of the risk of an infringement suit and the possible payment of damages is not convincing one way or the other. While one could argue that it supports the value of the invention to a certain extent, one could also argue that it indicates that the copier is convinced that the patent is not valid, i.e. there is no inventive step.
Ø Circumvention - This concept can also be related to commercial success. The fact that competitors try to produce a substitute for an invention (i.e. trying to use the inventive idea in a legal manner) can be taken as acknowledgement of the attractiveness of the invention and at the same time recognition of the commercial value of the invention.
Ø Parallel applications abroad - Applicants sometimes say that a patent has been granted for the invention in the US, Europe, or some other country, and imply that it should similarly be granted in other countries. This argument should be given some weight and, indeed, it is recommended that "young" patent offices make use of results from experienced patent offices.
Ø Other considerations
- Long existing prior art wherein this concept implies the question "If the invention is obvious, why was it not done a long time ago?". If the elements of the invention have been available for a long time and the particular combination that would result in the invention has not been made, although the result obtained by the invention is useful, this can be taken as a sign of non-obviousness. However, this pointer is usually given only limited weight because there may have been no particular need or desire to solve that problem during that period of time.
- Overcoming technical difficulties or solving a technical problem which others have been working on without success - This pointer covers a series of different aspects. We are not talking here simply about difficulties or problems the inventor himself had to overcome to achieve his result. The difficulties or problems must have existed in the technical field concerned and were such that the experts in this field were not able to overcome them. The length of time during which the difficulties or problems were known and the efforts made to remove them are important factors in this context.