Project 4: Using §103 as a Policy Tool Project

Project 4: Using §103 as a Policy Tool Project

Due Date: Wednesday, October 26, 2016

As the Graham test for non-obviousness encompasses a significantly subjective component, the test allows §103 to be used as a policy tool to further the constitutional goal of promoting the progress of the useful arts through patent laws. The standard set by the courts in cases that followed Graham encourages inventors to invest resources into inventive activities that are a leap of faith into the unknown and untested from the well-established norms of their own scientific and technological communities. In this sense, the Graham test and §103 can be used to spur significant innovations through the incentive of a patent. The Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House has recently contacted your law firm asking for advice on how to use patent laws to advance some pertinent areas of government and public interest in the basic and applied sciences. At your weekly meeting at the law firm, the partners of your law firm inform you of this project and ask you to lead the study that will produce a policy document, which will be then delivered to the OSTP. You agree to take up the project since you are the only practicing patent attorney in your law firm. Your partners inform you that the OSTP has requested the document by Wednesday, October 26, 2016. CLASS PROJECT For class project 4, study the part on “POLICY PERSPECTIVE: Using Section 103 as a Policy Tool” on p.389-490 of your text book. Understand the issues involved and formulate your own views on how §103 can work as a policy tool to promote the progress of the useful arts. Visit the website of the White House’s OSTP Initiatives to Advancing Basic and Applied Science and choose one initiative from the 6 initiatives listed on the site (https://www.whitehouse.gov/ administration/eop/ostp/initiatives#Science): 1. Big Data Research and Development Initiative 2. Biotechnology Policy 3. BRAIN Initiative 4. Forensic Science 5. Materials Genome Initiative 6. National Nanotechnology Initiative 7. Neuroscience Initiative 8. Social & Behavioral Sciences Initiative 1 Familiarize yourself with the initiative you have chosen and learn about the state of the art in your field of choice. For Class Project 4: 1. Prepare a policy document on how patent law, specifically §103, can be used to advance the initiative you have chosen. 2. Be prepared to discuss your project in class.