Addressing A Similar Problem May Be Sufficient To Combine Prior Art

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently reasserted its position that prior art references addressing the same or similar problem can provide sufficient motivation to combine in the context of an obviousness rejection. Commonwealth Sci. Indus. Research Org. v. Buffalo Technology (USA), Inc. et al., Case No. 07-1449 (Fed. Cir., Sept. 19, 2008) (Bryson J.; Lourie, J., concurring).

Patent holder Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) is Australia's national science agency. The patent at issue claims a solution to the "multipath" problem that was commonly encountered in development of modern wireless local area networking and covers a core component of the now widely used 802.11a/g wireless LAN technology standard. Consequently, CSIRO has been active in the defense of this patent, while companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Dell have filed a class action against it.