Information sharing practices during the COVID-19 era are
contributing to a growing bank of prior art and, further, are
increasing the risk of self-disclosure for those wishing to pursue
patent protection for their inventions.
In most jurisdictions, novelty and inventive step
(non-obviousness) are requirements for patentability, and are
assessed against the background of previous public disclosures made
anywhere in the world (the prior art base) before the date
on which a patent application for the invention was first filed
(the priority date). The prior art base includes any publicly
available documents or acts that disclose the claimed
invention.
Prior Art: Then and now
The types of prior art that are commonly cited for the purposes
of assessing whether a claimed invention is novel and non-obvious
include patent specifications, journal and magazine articles,
books, photos, conference abstracts and archived webpages.
Recently, Australian Courts have indicated
