Editing Prior art (section)

=== 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 As a special exception, earlier-filed and unpublished [[patent application]]s do qualify as prior art as of their filing date in certain circumstances.

Prior art generally does not include unpublished work or mere conversations (though, according to the [[European Patent Convention]], oral disclosures also form prior art—see {{EPC Article|54|2}}).