July 20, 2020by Yanhong Hu
A rejection for obviousness must include “some articulated reasoning with some rational underpinning to support the legal conclusion.” KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 418 (2007) (quoting In re Kahn, 441 F.3d 977,988 (Fed. Cir. 2006)). In Ex parte Awan, by reversing the Examiner’s obviousness rejection, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) reconfirmed the necessity of articulated reasoning with rational underpinning in an obviousness rejection.