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State of the Art and Novelty - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Art. 54(2) includes everything made available to the public by any means before the date of filing of your EP application
        
        Note that Art. 54(2) and (3) use words "before", this means that if disclosure of subject matter that you claim happens on the same date as you file your application, it is not considered by the EPO. Applies to any type of document (Art. 54(2)) including filed later, but published on the same date or later than your EP application, EP applications (Art. 54(3))
        
        So what would happen if there would be two EP applications filed with the same priority date for the same invention? My guess is that we cannot grant two EP, but this seems to be permitted by Art. 54(3).
        
        What kind of documents considered by Art. 54(2), what are the exceptions? So what happensif national patent is published earlier than you file? But it is in chinese, will EPO read it?
        
        Disclosure to a single person counts as novelty destroying
        
        But disclosure to hundreds and thousands may not count if you have signed secrecy agreement
        
        But your application may become not novel anymore if secrecy agreement is broken and you fail to file within 6 months
        
        However, you can get compensation when secrecy agreement is broken (court business)
        
        What are the requirements for a piece of prior art to be included in the state of the art under Art. 54(2)?
        
        No requirements to form, location, language, age, aim, field, extent
      - Art. 54(3) expands state of the art by including EP applications that have EP filing dates earlier than your EP application filing date and are published on the same date or later than your application is filed
        
        State of the art is expanded even further by Art. 89 which states that priority date should count as the date of filing for Art. 54(2) and (3)
        
        Art. 54(3) talks exclusively about EP applications. If national application with an earlier filing date relating to the same subject matter is published on or after you have filed your invention it may be cited by the EPO, but EPO will make no objections because of that. You will have to deal with this national patent on a national level (in court most likely)
        
        Top-up search is performed 18-months after the priority date at the earliest (to notice EP applications that are filed earlier, but haven't been published at the time of search)
      - Art. 55(1) excludes certain disclosures from state of the art
        
        Art. 55(1)(b) If your invention was display at an international exhibition
        
        For both cases the 6 month period is calculated from the filing date of EP application and not from priority (G3/98 and G2/99)
        
        Therefore if you file an EP application within 6-months from the disclosure, then file a divisional (after six months from the disclose) and abandon first, then your EP application will not be novel even if there was an evident abuse or you legitimately displayed your invention in international exhibition
        
        Why Francis mentions to file PCT?
        
        What are the requirements?
        
        Art. 55(1)(a) If there was an abuse against the applicant or his legal predecessor and it was evident
        
        Abuse must include intention to cause harm (T585/92 inadvertent publication by Brazilian patent office does not count as an abuse)
        
        Evident absue should be understood as "unquestionable" or "undisputable" (T173/83)
        
        So, there must be unquestionable intention to cause harm, that is hard to prove, but you can increase your chances of proving that it has happened if: 1. You have signed secrecy agreement; 2. You EP attorney discloses who is bound to keep secret by his profession
        
        If neither of these apply to your situation, it is still possible, however much harder, to prove that it should be kept as secret because of "tacit understanding". T541/92: sub-contractor, T634/91: potential
        buyer, both had to keep secrecy, but didn't
        
        1 more item...
    - - You may include more features, insert a disclaimer (say I do not claim this - that you know is already disclosed), switch from product claim to use claim (product may be known, but the use of that product in certain context may be novel)
        
        How to insert a disclaimer? What I know about use claims?