A Little Common Sense is a Dangerous Thing: The Inherent Inconsistency Between KSR and Current Official Notice Policy

[Excerpt] “The question of whether an invention is an obvious variation of existing technology is one that has troubled courts for decades. From its roots in nineteenth century case law to the recent Supreme Court decision KSR v. Teleflex, Inc., the doctrine of obviousness has waxed and waned—moving through a variety of judicially-created tests to a current state that is still far from perspicuous. This paper will examine obviousness through a particular lens: the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO,” “PTO”) tool known as “official notice”—the practice of declaring a patent application’s claims unpatentable as obvious based on undocumented reasoning, such as the common sense or common knowledge of a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the application pertains. After KSR, using unsubstantiated common sense-based rationales for rejecting patent claims is considered a completely valid practice. However, a line of obviousness cases, including one from the United States Supreme Court, stands for the polar opposite position—that declaring a patent invalid as obvious without underlying prior art support does not comport with the standards of the Administrative Procedure Act. Unfortunately, this contradiction leaves patent practitioners and the federal district courts to reconcile diametrically opposed holdings, especially when a case involves official notice. Part II of this paper will give a brief history of general obviousness jurisprudence up to the Supreme Court’s KSR decision in 2007. Next, Part III will introduce the reader to the obviousness inquiry through the eyes of a USPTO examiner by presenting a hypothetical patent application scenario and defining various terms of art. Part IV will introduce the concept of formal official notice at the USPTO, including an examination of the official agency guidelines for the practice, and will present a judicial history of official notice. Part V will return to KSR, presenting more recent Federal Circuit obviousness cases and introducing the problems that the current jurisprudence brings about. Finally, Part VI will conclude with potential solutions to the issue, arguing that the judiciary should hold the USPTO to task in providing evidence that an invention is in fact obvious.

This Was Locker Room Talk : A Content Analysis on the Preservation and Policing of Rape Culture on Twitter

On October 9, 2016 during the second presidential debate, Donald Trump was asked by debate moderators to respond to a recently released audio recording in which Trump can be heard boasting about grabbing women without their consent. The term locker room talk was used by Trump to justify the discourse overheard in the tape. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the way in which registered Twitter users interpret and react to the use of the term locker room talk in relation to nonconsensual sexual activities. Using a sample size of 3,280 tweets, this content analysis draws upon the statements posted by Twitter users during the second presidential debate immediately following Trump\u27s use of the phrase locker room talk. Data was collected using Radian6 software, and was coded based upon the content, overall sentiment, and frequency of tweets. This study found that Twitter users overwhelmingly rejected Trump\u27s use of the phrase locker room talk. Twitter users in this sample positioned hegemonic masculinity as a social construct that takes on particular forms for different groups of men. Additionally, Twitter users in this sample created a set of boundaries in relation to the performance of gender, as some stated that locker room talk is an appropriate expression of masculinity only for those who are young in age, are an athlete, and are in the confines of a locker room. Lastly, this study found that a small percentage of Twitter users in this sample enacted a process of neutralization in their tweets, as some stated that locker room talk should be forgiven when in the presence of actions that are perceived as worse, such as Hillary Clinton\u27s email scandal

Effect of oxygen concentration on the structural and magnetic properties of LaRh1/2Mn1/2O3 thin films

Epitaxial LaRh1/2Mn1/2O3 thin films have been grown on (001)-oriented LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 substrates using pulsed laser deposition. The optimized thin film samples are semiconducting and ferromagnetic with a Curie temperature close to 100 K, a coercive field of 1200 Oe, and a saturation magnetization of 1.7muB per formula unit. The surface texture, structural, electrical, and magnetic properties of the LaRh1/2Mn1/2O3 films was examined as a function of the oxygen concentration during deposition. While an elevated oxygen concentration yields thin films with optimal magnetic properties, slightly lower oxygen concentrations result in films with improved texture and crystallinity

Short Term Shifts in Soil Nematode Food Feb Structure and Nutrient Cycling Following Sustainable Soil Management in a California Vineyard

Evaluating soil health using bioindicator organisms has been suggested as a method of analyzing the long-term sustainability of agricultural management practices. The main objective of this study was to determine the effects of vineyard management strategies on soil food web structure and function, using nematodes as bioindicators by calculating established nematode ecological indices. Three field trials were conducted in a commercial Pinot Noir vineyard in San Luis Obispo, California; the effects of (i) fertilizer type (organic and inorganic), (ii) weed management (herbicide and tillage), and (iii) cover crops (high or low water requirements) on nematode community structure, soil nutrient content, and crop quality and yield were analyzed. Overall, although nematode ecological indices indicated that all plots had disturbed soil food webs, the indices proved to be less useful for measuring subtle differences in soil management over the short-term than anticipated. They showed few differences treatments. In general, the most pronounced differences were seen by sample location (under the vine or in the tractor row) and sample date, rather than treatment. None of the evaluated strategies affected crop quality, although fertilizer had a slight effect on yield. However, several indices were correlated with soil chemical parameters, including pH, nitrogen, carbon, and, to a lesser extent, EC. These results indicate that while nematode indices can be useful for comparing the state of the soil food web under long-term soil conditions, they may not be a robust measure of how agricultural management practices change soil health over a single growing season

Testing the salinity tolerance levels of similar invasive species found in the San Francisco Bay

Testing the salinity tolerance levels of similar invasive species found in the San Francisco Bay Julia Smith1,2, Elizabeth Sheets2, and C. Sarah Cohen2 1Department of Teacher Education, California State University, Sacramento 2Department of Biology and Romberg Tiburon Center, San Francisco State University Three non-indigenous colonial ascidian species, Botrylloides violaceus, Botrylloides diegensis, and Botryllus schlosseri, have become well established in San Francisco Bay. Two species, B. violaceous and B. schlosseri, are globally distributed, and understanding the salinity ranges and tolerances of these successful invaders in their introduced habitats is important for predicting their spread. We tested the tolerance of these three morphologically similar species to salinity ranges that they may encounter locally in San Francisco Bay, and globally, in their broad distributions, including a freshwater transit experiment designed to simulate conditions for ships transiting through the Panama Canal. Botrylloides violaceus, B. diegensis, and Botryllus schlosseri were exposed to various salinities (10, 15, 18, and 20 ppt) for a period of 14 hours, and then assessed for two signs of vitality immediately after each treatment, and were monitored for survival after a week. Our preliminary results showed survival of Botrylloides diegensis, and B. violaceus at the lowest (10 ppt) salinity treatment after 1 week, but no colonies of Botryllus schlosseri survived this salinity treatment in a preliminary trial. The three species all showed survival at our higher (15, 18, and 20 ppt) salinity treatments. In a separate trial, the three target species were also exposed to a drastic salinity decrease to 0 ppt for 7 hours, related to conditions in the Panama Canal. There were no signs of immediate survival in colonies that experienced very low salinity conditions. However, small vascular fragments appear to remain in many colonies three weeks later, and are currently being monitored in the event that they may regenerate, as local colonies of each of these speceis have successfully carried out whole body regeneration from vascular fragments as small as 3.9 mm (Benson Chow, unpub. data)

Magnetic and vibrational properties of high-entropy alloys

The magnetic properties of high-entropy alloys based on equimolar FeCoCrNi were investigated using vibrating sample magnetometry to determine their usefulness in high-temperature magnetic applications. Nuclear resonant inelastic x-ray scattering measurements were performed to evaluate the vibrational entropy of the ^(57)Fe atoms and to infer chemical order. The configurational and vibrational entropy of alloying are discussed as they apply to these high-entropy alloys

Positive Vibrational Entropy of Chemical Ordering in FeV

Inelastic neutron scattering and nuclear resonant inelastic x-ray scattering were used to measure phonon spectra of FeV as a B2 ordered compound and as a bcc solid solution. The two data sets were combined to give an accurate phonon density of states, and the phonon partial densities of states for V and Fe atoms. Contrary to the behavior of ordering alloys studied to date, the phonons in the B2 ordered phase are softer than in the solid solution. Ordering increases the vibrational entropy by +0.22±0.03k_B/atom, which stabilizes the ordered phase to higher temperatures. First-principles calculations show that the number of electronic states at the Fermi level increases upon ordering, enhancing the screening between ions, and reducing the interatomic force constants. The effect of screening is larger at the V atomic sites than at the Fe atomic sites

Effects of chemical composition and B2 order on phonons in bcc Fe–Co alloys

The phonon density of states (DOS) gives insight into interatomic forces and provides the vibrational entropy, making it a key thermodynamic function for understanding alloy phase transformations. Nuclear resonant inelastic x-ray scattering and inelastic neutron scattering were used to measure the chemical dependence of the DOS of bcc Fe–Co alloys. For the equiatomic alloy, the A2→B2 (chemically disordered→chemically ordered) phase transformation caused measurable changes in the phonon spectrum. The measured change in vibrational entropy upon ordering was −0.02±0.02 k_B/atom, suggesting that vibrational entropy results in a reduction in the order–disorder transition temperature by 60±60 K. The Connolly–Williams cluster inversion method was used to obtain interaction DOS (IDOS) curves that show how point and pair variables altered the phonon DOS of disordered bcc Fe–Co alloys. These IDOS curves accurately captured the change in the phonon DOS and vibrational entropy of the B2 ordering transition