Lecture
Under paragraph 1 of Article 4 of the Patent Law, an invention is deemed new
if it is not known from the prior art. The prior art comprises
any information that has become publicly available anywhere in the world before the priority date of the application.
The notion of public availability is set out in paragraph 22.3 of the Rules for drafting, filing
and examining an application for the grant of a patent for an invention, 1993: in determining the prior art, information is deemed publicly available if it is contained in a source of information with which any person may acquaint himself, or the content of which may lawfully be communicated to him.
In determining the date from which publicly available information contained in various sources
may be cited against an invention, the following provisions apply:
- published descriptions attached to protective documents - as of the date of publication
indicated on them;
- domestic printed publications and printed publications of the USSR - as of the date
of sending to press indicated on them;
- printed publications on which no date of sending to press is indicated, and
also other printed publications - as of the date of their release, and where it is
impossible to establish that date, the last day of the month or 31 December of the year
indicated in the publication;
- deposited manuscripts of articles, reviews, monographs and other materials
- as of the date of their deposit;
- reports on research work, explanatory notes to
experimental design work and other design, technological and
project documentation held by scientific and technical information bodies - as of the date of their receipt
by those bodies;
- regulatory and technical documentation - as of the date of its registration with the body authorised
to carry out such registration;
- materials of dissertations and dissertation abstracts published as manuscripts,
- as of the date of their receipt by the library;
- works submitted for a competition - as of the date on which they were displayed for inspection;
- visually perceptible sources of information (posters, models, articles
and the like) - as of the documented date from which they could be
viewed;
- exhibits placed at an exhibition - as of the documented
date on which their display began;
- oral reports, lectures and presentations - as of the date of the report, lecture or presentation,
provided they were recorded by sound-recording equipment or in shorthand;
- broadcasts on radio, television or in film - as of the date of such broadcast, provided
it was fixed on an appropriate medium;
- information about a technical means that has become known as a result of its
use.
It should be particularly noted that, when the novelty of an invention is examined, the prior art
also includes certain information that has not yet become publicly available before
the priority date of the invention. Thus, in the course of examining an invention for novelty, the prior art includes inventions and utility models patented in Russia, as well as all applications for inventions and utility models filed by other persons, except withdrawn ones, provided they have an earlier priority. As follows from the above, unpublished applications may also be included in the prior art. At the same time, an applicant's own application in which the invention that is the subject matter of the second application under consideration is disclosed may not be cited against him. This provision does not, however, extend to the situation where a patent for an invention (a certificate for a utility model identical to the invention) has already been granted to one and the same applicant. This is done in order to eliminate double patenting, i.e. the grant of two patents for one invention.
It should be taken into account that an application is included in the prior art with respect to the description and claims contained in it as of the date on which the request, description, claims and drawings were received (for applications for inventions - only where the description contains references to them).
Inventions and utility models patented in Russia are included in the prior
art only with respect to the claims with which they were registered in
the relevant State Register.
Under subparagraph (1) of paragraph 19.5.2 of the Rules, the novelty of an invention is examined
with respect to the entire combination of features contained in the independent claim of the invention.
In novelty examination practice, the claimed invention may be compared only with a single, separately taken object, as a rule contained in a single source of information. At the same time, it should be noted that this provision is not expressly laid down in Russian patent legislation.
Finally, if the examination establishes that the invention does not meet the condition
of novelty, the inventive step is not examined.
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