Case Law
Article 56: Inventive step

Court of First Instance - Munich (DE) Central Division - Section, Order dated 16/07/2024, Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH, Sanofi Winthrop Industrie S.A., Sanofi-Aventis Groupe v. Amgen, Inc. (Case/ Registry number: ACT_459505/2023, ORD_598362/2023)
Example of decision on the assessment of the inventive step: "3. The assessment of inventive step starts from a realistic starting point in the prior art. There can be several realistic starting points. It is not necessary to identify the “most promising” starting point. 4. In general, a claimed solution is obvious if the skilled person would be motivated to consider the claimed solution and would implement it as a next step in developing the prior art. It may be relevant whether the skilled person would have expected any particular difficulties in taking any next step(s). The absence of a reasonable expectation of success (or more in general: non-obviousness) does not follow from the mere fact that other ways of solving the underlying problem are also suggested in the prior art and/or (would) have been pursued by others. The decisive question that has to be answered is whether the claimed solution is non-obvious. 5. For assessing inventive step it is not the question whether the skilled person would inevitably arrive at the same result (falling within the scope of the claim or not). Rather, it is sufficient (but also necessary) for denying inventive step that the skilled person would without inventive contribution arrive at a result which is covered by a claim. 6. A technical effect or advantage achieved by the claimed subject matter compared to the prior art may be an indication for inventive step. A feature that is selected in an arbitrary way out of several possibilities cannot generally contribute to inventive step."