State Of The Art

Concept of State of the Art in IP Law

[rtbs name=”intellectual-property-law”]Lambert defined state of the art as follows: Defined by s.2 (2) of the Patents Act 1977 “as all matter (whether a product, a process, information about either, or anything else) which has at any time before the priority date of that invention been made available to the public (whether in the United Kingdom or elsewhere) by written or oral description, by use or in any other way..” It can also include matter contained in an application for another patent which was published on or after the application for an invention where the following conditions are met:
(a) that matter was contained in the application for that other patent both as filed and as published; and
(b) that matter was disclosed before the invention.