USA: In re Rhoads, United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit, No. 2015-1972, 4 May 2016

Substantial evidence supported the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s finding that a skilled artisan would have been motivated to combine three prior art references to obtain methods for using a smart phone to control other devices, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled (In re Rhoads, May 4, 2016, Clevenger, R.). The court affirmed the Board’s rejection of a method claim in a patent application titled “Methods and systems for cell phone interactions.”

A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.