{"id":29416,"date":"2025-07-03T06:35:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T06:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/?p=29416"},"modified":"2025-07-03T07:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T07:15:09","slug":"english-epo-eboa-clarifies-principles-on-what-represents-prior-art-in-decision-g1-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/epo-eboa-decision-g1-23-clarifies-what-represents-prior-art\/","title":{"rendered":"EPO EBoA decision G1\/23 clarifies principles on what represents prior art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Decision\u00a0G1\/23<\/strong><\/a> of the EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBoA) was published on 2 July 2025.\"Decision<\/p>\n

Headnote:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. A product put on the market before the date of filing of a European patent application cannot be excluded from the state of the art <\/strong>within the meaning of Article 54(2) EPC for the sole reason that its composition or internal structure could not be analysed and reproduced by the skilled person before that date.<\/em><\/p>\n

2.Technical information about such a product which was made available to the public before the filing date forms part of the state of the art within the meaning of Article 54(2) EPC, irrespective <\/strong>of whether the skilled person could analyse and reproduce the product and its composition or internal structure before that date.<\/em><\/p>\n

The decision reinforces the principle that the enablement requirement should play no role in deciding whether a commercially available product – and related technical information – is to be considered as made available to the public or not. In other words, public availability is what matters not whether reverse engineering is possible.<\/p>\n

It appears that the opponent’s argument already sums it up perfectly: \u201cImagining that Coca-Cola was not known and could not constitute prior art would be manifestly unreasonable.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This might sound like bad news for patentees but \u2013 based on Reason 96 of the decision \u2013 it appears that the weight this ruling carries is case-dependent and hinges on the specific technical teaching it conveys in relation to the invention.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further information<\/span><\/h2>\n

Questions on European patents? Contact us<\/a>, we are happy to help.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Related content<\/em><\/p>\n

Articles – Is a commercially available product always state of the art according to Article 54(2) EPC? \u2013 S. Santoro, A. Antonucci<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Decision\u00a0G1\/23 of the EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBoA) was published on 2 July 2025. Headnote: 1. A product put on the market before the date of filing of a European patent application cannot be excluded from the state of the art within the meaning of Article 54(2) EPC for the sole reason that its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDecision G1\/23 EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Decision G1\/23 EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal clarifies principles on what represents prior art, read more in our comment.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/?p=29416\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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