Supreme Court Asked to Decide Who Determines Obviousness

Devicemaker Medela is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to determine that a judge, not a lay jury, should decide whether a patent is obvious. The Federal Circuit has held that a court review of a jury verdict is limited to “re-creating facts that ‘may have been found’ by the jury” and determining whether there was an allowable legal rationale that the jury might have used in reaching its conclusion. This precedent conflicts with decisions by the Seventh and Ninth Circuits, which have held that judges must independently decide whether facts lead to a legal conclusion of obviousness, according to the petition.
Devices and Diagnostics Letter