CAFC Vacates PTAB Finding of Obviousness – Failed to Properly Support Assertion of “Routine Optimization”

In In re Stepan, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) delivered a precedential opinion, in which the CAFC vacated a decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). The underlying decision by the PTAB upheld an Examiner’s determination of obviousness, which was based on a conclusory assertion of “routine optimization.” The CAFC noted that an obviousness determination requires finding both: “that a skilled artisan would have been motivated to combine the teachings of the prior art … and that the skilled artisan would have had a reasonable expectation of success in doing so”…

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