Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

A 103 rejection involves the concept of obviousness, which is directly tied to prior art as defined under 102 rejections. Specifically, for a patent claim to be rejected under 103, the examiner must first establish that there is prior art that could be combined in such a way that the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art would be considered obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made.

In other words, a 103 rejection presupposes that at least one prior art reference has been identified that is relevant under 102. The combination of these references is necessary for a finding of obviousness, thus linking the two types of rejections. This relationship emphasizes the idea that a claim cannot simply be deemed obvious without first detailing and addressing the prior art contributions, which is the foundation of a 102 rejection.

The other choices do not accurately reflect this connection. For instance, stating that a 103 rejection is solely based on prior patents overlooks the notion that all forms of prior art (not only patents) can be considered under a 102 rejection. Assumptions about prior art not existing and claims that 103 rejections are unrelated to 102 rejections miss the crucial interplay between the two