In the UK the “Windsurfer” approach (Windsurfing International v
Tabur Marine (1985)) was adopted to assess inventive step in a
patent. In this approach, the following four steps were taken:
(1.) The first is to identify the inventive concept embodied in the
patent in suit.
(2.) Assume the mantle of the normally skilled but
unimaginative addresses in the art at the priority date and impute
to him what was, at the date, common general knowledge in the art
in question.
(3.) Identify what, if any, differences exist between the matters
cited as forming part of the state of the ar and the alleged invention.
(4.) Finally the court has to ask itself whether, viewed without
any knowledge of the alleged invention, those differences
constitute steps to which would have been obvious to the skilled
man or whether they required any degree of invention.
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