On the basis of the relevant prior art, you as a patent examiner will have to assess whether the claimed invention would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art ("routine engineer"). This would be the case if a hypothetical ordinarily skilled artisan could arrive at something falling within the terms of the claim, having regard to the art known at the time of filing or priority date valid for that claim. In other words, an invention is obvious and thus not patentable if this person would have been likely to develop the invention at issue.

In the determination of the level of ordinary skills, you are not bound to refer only to the expertise in your own country. Instead, you are free to take higher foreign expertise into account which may considerably elevate the level of relevant prior art, and thereby increase the possibility that the examined innovation is obvious and thus not patentable.

You are free to set up certain criteria for determining cases of obviousness. In the pharmaceutical context, an invention could, for instance, be obvious if the claimed invention is predictable or similar in structure to the prior art compound. In these cases, you could establish a so-called prima facie case of obviousness, thus shifting the burden of proofing non-obviousness on the patent applicant.