Hello,

I would like to ask the members for their opinion about the following issue:

Writing the background, should one aim at the invention, or state only related prior art without pointing the problem that the invention solves? The latter approach avoids the risk of making the disclosed invention obvious.

I raise the question following Gene Quinn's post in his blog (http://www.ipwatchdog.com/category/blog/), regarding an Apple patent application for solar mobile devices. He praises:"Notice in the Background how a story is being told about the industry and development of devices, which leads you to come to the conclusion that wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a solar powered device." Indeed, this is elegant, but can't it lead the examiner to murmur "103"?

Thanks,
Ophir.