Discussion On The Strategy For Responding To Office Action Related To "Common Knowledge In The Art"

Introduction

During an examination involving the inventive step of invention patent applications, applicants may usually find comments such as "the distinguishing technical feature XXX is common knowledge in the art, and on the basis of the combination of the reference documents and common knowledge in the art, it would have been obvious for a person skilled in the art to arrive at the claimed technical solution of the present application" in office actions. In addition, the patentability of the applications is questioned for lacking an inventive step. With regard to such office actions, applicants might be confused on how to prove that the technical solution involved in the distinguishing technical feature does not belong to common knowledge in the art.