Even if an invention does not include each and every element of a prior art reference, arranged in just the same way, the invention may nevertheless be obvious.

In In re Bilski, the Federal Circuit considered en banc, sua sponte, significant questions concerning patentability for process claims.

A patent thicket is "a dense web of overlapping intellectual property rights that a company must hack its way through in order to actually commercialize new technology."

In United States patent law, patent misuse is an affirmative defense used in patent litigation when a defendant has been accused to have infringed a patent.

Means plus function refers to the 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 provision that allows a claim element to be expressed as a means for performing a function—without reciting the structure that actually performs the functions.

Infringement, the trespass onto the patent owner’s rights to exclude others from using his intellectual property

To be patentable an invention must be “new”—novel—in terms of 35 U.S.C. § 102.

Enablement is the 35 U.S.C. 112, ¶ 1 requirement that the specification describe how to make and use the invention.

To be invalidating under 35 U.S.C. § 102, the invention must have been “described in” a printed publication before the patent application.