IPA patent 8.5.4-common-general-knowledge — IP Australia Patent Manual of Practice and Procedure – 8.5.4 Common General Knowledge

Also in this Chapter: 8.5.1 The Statutory Basis for Inventive Step 8.5.2 Prior Art Base 8.5.3 Assessing Inventive Step in Examination ​​​​​​​ 8.5.5 Determining the Problem 8.5.6 Identifying the Person Skilled in the Art 8.5.7 Could the PSA have Ascertained, Understood, Regard as Relevant and Combined the Prior Art Information Key Legislation: Patents Act: s7 Novelty, inventive step and innovative step s18 Patentable Inventions For novelty, a citation is construed as at its date of publication to the exclusion of information subsequently discovered. For inventive step, the citation is construed by the person skilled in the art when trying to solve the problem, i.e. at the priority date of the claims being examined. This means that for the purposes of inventive step, the disclosure of a citation may be effectively extended by having regard to subsequent common general knowledge in Australia developed in the period between the publication date of the citation and the priority date of the claim under consideration.