Case: Patents/Obviousness (Fed. Cir.)

The Federal Circuit affirmed the decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that most of the challenged claims of KOM Software Inc.'s patent for systems and methods for restricting access to a storage medium are unpatentable as obvious over prior art, in this inter partes review by NetApp Inc. The court rejected KOM’s challenge to the board’s construction and application of the claims, and agreed with the board’s findings that prior art renders some of the challenged claims obvious and that a relevant artisan had a motivation to combine the various prior art references. And the court rejected NetApp’s ...