During inter partes review (IPR) proceedings, a patent owner facing a challenge to a patent’s claims on the basis of obviousness may seek to counter this challenge by presenting evidence of objective indicia of nonobviousness, sometimes referred to as ‘‘secondary considerations of nonobviousness.’’ Objective indicia evidence ‘‘can include copying, long felt but unsolved need, failure of others, commercial success, unexpected results created by the claimed invention, unexpected properties of the claimed invention, licenses showing industry respect for the invention, and skepticism of skilled artisans before the invention.’’ Power Integrations, Inc. v. Fairchild Semiconductor Int’l, Inc., 711 F.3d 1348, 1368 (Fed. Cir. 2013).

Originally published in Bloomberg BNA’s Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal® - November 3, 2017.