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Commercial success and patents

bookloverbooklover subscriber Posts: 8 Member
edited June 2008 in Protecting Your Ideas
Can some one explain how commercial success of your product can help in
obtaining a patent?  I read about it on the uspto site, but don`t
fully understand.  
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Comments

  • patentandtrademarkpatentandtrademark subscriber Posts: 103
    commercial success does not help - and is not relevant
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  • bookloverbooklover subscriber Posts: 8 Member
    From uspto site:

    In ex parte proceedings before the Patent and Trademark Office,
    an applicant must show that the claimed features were responsible for
    the commercial success of an article if the evidence of nonobviousness
    is to be accorded substantial weight.

    What does this mean?
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  • patentandtrademarkpatentandtrademark subscriber Posts: 103
    If there is a rejection based on 35 usc 103, evidence of commercial success can overcome that rejection in very limited circumstances.  Evidence of commercial success plays no role in determining novelty.  Evidence of commercial success is one measure of a claimed feature`s long felt and unmet need.  Having argued this point, I can tell you it often falls on deaf ears, since evidence of commercial success can also be a function of things like advertising, and not the state of knowledge in the art.
     
    patentandtrademark6/5/2008 3:19 PM
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  • bookloverbooklover subscriber Posts: 8 Member
    Ok, I think I understand.  So, in rare cases, you can claim
    something as not obvious to one skilled in the art if commercial
    success is due to that feature?  I can see how that would happen
    pretty infrequently.
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