On January 30, 2009, the Federal Circuit reversed a district court summary judgment of obviousness.  It did so for two reasons: (1) the district court erred in determining that the prior art taught all of the elements of the claims, and (2) the district court failed to give appropriate weight to the evidence of unexpected results.  Specifically, the Federal Circuit criticized the district court for failing to address the so-called secondary considerations (a.k.a. "objective indicia" of non-obviousness), other than in a conclusory statement that the elements of the patent did not work together in an "unexpected manner."

A link to the slip opinion is below.


SUD-CHEMIE, INC. v. MULTISORB TECHNOLOGIES, INC., CA. No. 2008-1247, Slip Op at 12 (Fed. Cir. January 30, 2009).