Which patentability element ensures the invention would not be obvious to a person skilled in the art?

• A. Non-obviousness
• B. Novelty
• C. Utility
• D. Enabling disclosure

Answer: (B)

Non-obviousness is the patentability element that ensures an invention would not be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art. Even a claim that is novel—not previously disclosed—can be rejected if a skilled artisan would find it obvious in light of what’s already known. The analysis looks at the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art, considering the scope of the prior art, the level of ordinary skill, and whether the invention would have been obvious to combine or modify existing ideas. If those differences would have been obvious to try or to derive from what’s known, the claim lacks non-obviousness and cannot be patented. Utility and enablement address different requirements—utility asks for a useful purpose, and enablement requires enough information for a person skilled in the art to practice the invention—while novelty asks whether the idea is truly new.