Law360, New York ( October 2, 2012, 2:01 PM EDT) -- Over the course of 2012, on at least three occasions the Federal Circuit has found anticipation in a situation in which previously the invention would have merely been viewed as obvious: (1) where the prior art merely proposes the steps of the method, without knowledge of whether those method steps will achieve any result, much less the result claimed in the therapeutic method; (2) where the prior art discloses a broader range without providing a "pattern of preference" for a later-claimed narrower range; and (3) where the prior art discloses lists of potential components, where one has to pick from a large list of optional ingredients and a large list of possible compounds for each of those ingredients....