4. What is publicly accessible information?
The law does not define who constitutes the public, nor the extent to which information is considered to be accessible to them. The answer to these questions is determined by office and court practice. As this practice has a certain stability, we can draw some general conclusions. In many cases, it is very easy to assess whether information was accessible to the public at the patent filing date, but there are always borderline cases where this determination is more difficult, even for a patent law professional.
4.1 Public
The public to whom information must have been accessible prior to the filing date of the patent application in order for it to form part of the state of the art includes any person (other than the applicant) who is not bound to secrecy about...
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Bibliography
JurisClasseur Brevets, Fascicule 4260 : Novelty, Joanna Schmidt-Szalewski, LexisNexis 2021
J. Passa, Traité de droit de la propriété industrielle , Tome 2 : Brevets d'invention, Protections voisines, L.G.D.J, 2013
C. Grosset-Fournier, A. Dacheux, "Le brevet d'invention – La cause des inventeurs", Éditions Tec&Doc, 2012
J. Raynard, E. Py, P. Tréfigny,...
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Convention sur le brevet européen en ligne
The latest continuously updated version of the European Patent Convention, a text which provides for an autonomous legal system for the granting of European patents through a single, harmonized procedure before the European Patent Office (EPO).
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