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PATENTS ACT 1990 No. 83, 1990 - SECT 7

Novelty and inventive step
7. (1) For the purposes of this Act, an invention is to be taken to be novel
when compared with the prior art base unless it is not novel in the light of
any one of the following kinds of information, each of which must be
considered separately:

   (a)  prior art information (other than that mentioned in paragraph (c) )
        made publicly available in a single document or through doing a single
        act;

   (b)  prior art information (other than that mentioned in paragraph (c) )
        made publicly available in 2 or more related documents, or through
        doing 2 or more related acts, if the relationship between the
        documents or acts is such that a person skilled in the relevant art in
        the patent area would treat them as a single source of that
        information;

   (c)  prior art information contained in a single specification of the kind
mentioned in subparagraph (b) (ii) of the definition of "prior art base" in
Schedule 1.

(2) For the purposes of this Act, an invention is to be taken to involve an
inventive step when compared with the prior art base unless the invention
would have been obvious to a person skilled in the relevant art in the light
of the common general knowledge as it existed in the patent area before the
priority date of the relevant claim, whether that knowledge is considered
separately or together with either of the kinds of information mentioned in
subsection (3), each of which must be considered separately.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2), the kinds of information are:

   (a)  prior art information made publicly available in a single document or
        through doing a single act; and

   (b)  prior art information made publicly available in 2 or more related
        documents, or through doing 2 or more related acts, if the
        relationship between the documents or acts is such that a person
        skilled in the relevant art in the patent area would treat them as a
        single source of that information; being information that the skilled
        person mentioned in subsection (2) could, before the priority date of
        the relevant claim, be reasonably expected to have ascertained,
        understood and regarded as relevant to work in the relevant art in the
        patent area.
(Notes: (1) For the meaning of "document" see section 25 of the Acts 
Interpretation Act 1901 .
(Notes: (2) See also the definitions of "prior art base" and "prior art
information" in Schedule 1: see also paragraph 18 (1) (b) and subsection 98
(1).) 


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