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Prior art – Prior art or state of the art or background art in most systems of patent law constitutes all information that has been made available to the public in any form before a given date that might be relevant to a patent’s claims of originality. If an invention has been described in the prior art, a patent on that invention is not valid.

It is therefore of no surprise that prior art searching is a key offering by IP Firms and IP Service Providers and a key part of the work conducted by the Patent Examiner at the Patent Office. (more…)