Guidelines for Examination:PART C: CHAPTER IV PATENTABILITY, CHAPTER IV Annex EXAMPLES RELATING TO THE REQUIREMENT OF INVENTIVE STEP INDICATORS (see IV, 9.13), 1. Application of known measures?, 1.1 Inventions involving the application of known measures in an obvious way and in respect of which an...

Guidelines for Examination
PART C
CHAPTER IV PATENTABILITY
CHAPTER IV Annex EXAMPLES RELATING TO THE REQUIREMENT OF INVENTIVE STEP INDICATORS (see IV, 9.13)
1. Application of known measures?
1.1 Inventions involving the application of known measures in an obvious way and in respect of which an...

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PART C
CHAPTER IV PATENTABILITY
CHAPTER IV Annex EXAMPLES RELATING TO THE REQUIREMENT OF INVENTIVE STEP INDICATORS (see IV, 9.13)
1. Application of known measures?

1.2 Inventions involving the application of known measures in a non-obvious way and in respect of which an...

1.1	Inventions involving the application of known measures in an obvious way and in respect of which an inventive step is therefore to be ruled out:

(i)	the teaching of a prior document is incomplete and at least one of the possible ways of "filling the gap" which would naturally or readily occur to the skilled person results in the invention;

Example: The invention relates to a building structure made from aluminium. A prior document discloses the same structure and says that it is of light-weight material but fails to mention the use of aluminium.

(ii)	the invention differs from the known art merely in the use of well-known equivalents (mechanical, electrical or chemical);

Example: The invention relates to a pump which differs from a known pump solely in that its motive power is provided by a hydraulic motor instead of an electric motor.

(iii)

the invention consists merely in a new use of a well-known material employing the known properties of that material;

Example: Washing composition containing as detergent a known compound having the known property of lowering the surface tension of water, this property being known to be an essential one for detergents.

(iv)	the invention consists in the substitution in a known device of a recently developed material whose properties make it plainly suitable for that use ("analogous substitution");

Example: An electric cable comprises a polyethylene sheath bonded to a metallic shield by an adhesive. The invention lies in the use of a particular newly developed adhesive known to be suitable for polymer-metal bonding.

(v)	the invention consists merely in the use of a known technique in a closely analogous situation ("analogous use").

Example: The invention resides in the application of a pulse control technique to the electric motor driving the auxiliary mechanisms of an industrial truck, such as a fork-lift truck, the use of this technique to control the electric propulsion motor of the truck being already known.