State of the art
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For other uses, see State of the art (disambiguation).
The state of the art is the highest level of development, as of a device, technique, or scientific field, achieved at a particular time.
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[edit] Usage note
The phrase "state of the art" should be hyphenated when it is used as an adjective, e.g.: "This machine is an example of state-of-the-art technology", but not when used as a noun, as in the sentence below.
[edit] Origin
The earliest known usage of the term "state of the art" dates back to 1910 from an engineering manual by H.H. Suplee titled Gas Turbine. It reads, "In the present state of the art this is all that can be done."
[edit] Patent law
In the context of the European and Australian patent law, the term "state of the art" is a very important concept in the process of assessing and asserting novelty and inventive step, and is a synonym of the expression "prior art" [1] [2]. "The state of the art shall be held to comprise everything made available to the public by means of a written or oral description, by use, or in any other way, before the date of filing of the European patent application" according to Art 54(2) EPC [3]. Due account should be taken of Art. 54(3) as well, but merely for the examination of novelty.
The expression "background art" is also used in certain legal provisions, such as Rule 27, and has the same meaning [4]. The expression "internal state of the art" is used to describe the state of the art merely on possession of the (patent) applicant, but not in the public domain.
