Guide for Applicants - Part 1:How to get a European patent: B. Patentability, II. Novelty, Basic principles

Guide for Applicants - Part 1
How to get a European patent

E / D / F


How to get a European patent
B. Patentability
II. Novelty

Prior rights

Basic principles

32	An invention is considered to be new if it does not form part of the state of the art.

Art. 54(1)

The definition of the state of the art in the EPC reflects the principle of absolute novelty: the state of the art comprises everything made available to the public anywhere in the world by means of a written or oral description, by use, or in any other way, before the date of filing or priority. However, novelty is prejudiced only by something which is clearly disclosed to a skilled person in a single source of prior art, eg in a patent application published before the date of priority.

Art. 54(2), 89
Guid. C-IV, 5, 7

An earlier disclosure of the invention is non-prejudicial only if it occurred no earlier than six months before the filing of the European patent application and was due to an evident abuse in relation to the applicant or to display at an exhibition falling within the terms of the Paris Convention on international exhibitions¹. Apart from these two cases, the second of which is rare in practice, any disclosure of the invention before the date of filing may be cited against the applicant as forming part of the state of the art, even if the applicant himself was responsible for the disclosure.

Art. 55
R. 23
Guid. A-IV, 3; Guid. C-IV, 8

Every year in the April issue of its Official Journal the EPO publishes a list of exhibitions falling within the terms of this Convention that have been registered by the International Exhibition Bureau.