Implicit Incentives - BGH Installiereinrichtung II

The German Federal Supreme Court (BHG) has recently ruled on the "pointers" or "incentives" known to be needed to find that it is obvious for the skilled person to furhter develop a known solution in the way indicated by that pointer.

Besides of noting that all this depends on the circumstances of the individual case, the court notes that not only explicit promptings are relevant:

Rather, the characteristics ofthe technical field under consideration, in particular relating to the education of the persons skilled in the art, the usual way of developing innovations, technical requirements resulting from the construction or the application of the subject-matter under consideration as well as non-technical requirements may play a role.