In re Kubin
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
561 F.3d 1351 (Fed. Cir. 2009)
Marek Kubin applied to patent the isolation and sequencing of cDNA encoding a protein (NAIL) important to the human body; the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences rejected the application as obvious, finding that prior teachings (Valiante) established NAIL's importance such that a person of ordinary skill would see value in isolating its cDNA, that Kubin used isolation techniques already described by another prior reference (Sambrook), and that Kubin isolated the DNA using an antibody Valiante had already discovered. Kubin appealed, arguing his discovery wasn't obvious.
Whether a patent claim can be deemed obvious merely by showing that the combination of known elements and methods was obvious to try.