What's The Difference Between A Garden Hose And A Tractor?

This might sound like the start of a festive cracker joke, but is in fact the one of the main points of contention in the recent judgment, Claydon v Mzuri. The comparison was made in relation to an assessment of whether there had been a prior public disclosure during testing of a prototype agricultural seed drill. The prevailing case law, Mishan v Hozelock, relates to garden hoses.

For a patent to be valid, the claimed invention must be novel over the state of the art at the time of filing. The state of the art includes any public disclosure of the invention, whether written, oral, or based on a prior use. Further, it is not even necessary that a member of the public actually reads, hears or sees the disclosure.