When determining differences under 35 U.S.C. 103, what should be considered?

The key focus when determining differences under 35 U.S.C. 103, which pertains to the obviousness of a claimed invention, is the differences between the prior art and the claimed invention. This section of the U.S. patent law is concerned with whether the claimed invention would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made, considering the prior art.

In applying this test, one must analyze the prior art - which includes all publicly available materials and inventions that preceded the application for the patent in question - and compare these elements to what is being claimed in the new invention. By assessing the differences, one can evaluate whether the new invention is simply a combination of previously known ideas that a skilled artisan could deduce without extensive experimentation or an inventive leap.

This method acknowledges the importance of the context in which the claimed invention is situated; it allows for a thorough understanding of how the invention stands out from what has already been disclosed, thereby providing a foundation to analyze its patentability. This approach supports the legal framework needed to assess uniqueness and innovation relative to existing knowledge in the field.