Finding that the prior art taught all of the claim elements and
provided a motivation to combine, the US Court of Appeals for the
Federal Circuit concluded that a challenged patent claim would have
been obvious notwithstanding significant objective indicia
to the contrary. Intercontinental Great Brands LLC v. Kellogg
North America Co. et al., Case Nos. 15-2082; -2084 (Fed. Cir.,
Sept. 7, 2017) (Taranto, J) (Reyna, J, dissenting). In a dissenting
opinion, Judge Reyna questioned the propriety of the prima
facie obviousness framework applied by the lower court and
sanctioned by the majority.
Intercontinental Great Brands (formerly Kraft) owned patents for
cookie packaging in which the allegedly novelty was a top portion
that could be peeled back and resealed with an adhesive strip to
preserve the cookies’ freshness. Intercontinental asserted
the patents against Kellogg. Kellogg asserted invalidity based on
obviousness, arguing that the only difference between the
