Editing Prior art (section)

== Defining prior art ==
Prior art may comprise information that is disclosed to the public in written form, oral form, or by use. Sources of disclosure in written form may include published [[patent]]s or [[patent application]]s or [[Academic publishing|scientific and technical books and journals]]. Unpublished patent applications may also be considered prior art under certain circumstances, for example where an unpublished patent application was filed at the same patent office before the effective filing date of the patent application in question. 

To anticipate the subject-matter of a [[claim (patent)|patent claim]], prior art is generally expected to provide a description sufficient to inform an average worker in the field (or the ''[[person skilled in the art]]'') of some subject matter falling within the scope of the claim. Prior art must be available in some way to the public, and in many countries, the information needs to be recorded in a fixed form somehow. 

=== Specific cases ===
[[Traditional knowledge]], such as [[traditional medicine]], may be considered prior art.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ruiz|first=Manuel|date=October 2002|title=The International Debate On Traditional Knowledge As Prior Art In The Patent System: Issues And Options For Developing Countries|url=http://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/PriorArt_ManuelRuiz_Oct02.pdf|access-date=29 December 2021|website=Centre for International Environmental Law|archive-date=20 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120224006/https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/PriorArt_ManuelRuiz_Oct02.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Information covered by [[non-disclosure agreement]]s or similar may not be considered to have been disclosed to the public and thus not prior art.<ref>European Commission, Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Non-disclosure agreement : a business tool, Publications Office, 2021, {{doi|10.2826/547286}} </ref>

If an [[invention]] has been described in the prior art or would have been [[Inventive step and non-obviousness|obvious]] from what has been described in the prior art, a patent on that invention is not valid. 

Information kept secret, for instance, as a [[trade secret]], is not usually prior art, provided that employees and others with access to the information are under a non-disclosure obligation. With such an obligation, the information is typically not regarded as prior art. Therefore, a patent may be granted on an invention, even though someone else already knew of the invention. A person who used an invention in secret may in some jurisdictions be able to claim "prior user rights" and thereby gain the right to continue using the invention. As a special exception, earlier-filed and unpublished [[patent application]]s do qualify as prior art as of their filing date in certain circumstances.

Prior art generally does not include unpublished work or mere conversations (though, according to the [[European Patent Convention]], oral disclosures also form prior art—see {{EPC Article|54|2}}).