Novelty
What does "Novelty" mean in law?
Novelty is a fundamental requirement for patentability under 35 U.S.C. section 102, mandating that an invention must be new and not anticipated by the prior art. An invention lacks novelty if every element of the claimed invention is found in a single prior art reference, a standard known as 'anticipation.' Under the America Invents Act's first-inventor-to-file system, a claim is anticipated if the invention was patented, described in a printed publication, in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date. A one-year grace period exists for the inventor's own disclosures under section 102(b).
Definition
Novelty is a fundamental requirement for patentability under 35 U.S.C. section 102, mandating that an invention must be new and not anticipated by the prior art. An invention lacks novelty if every element of the claimed invention is found in a single prior art reference, a standard known as 'anticipation.' Under the America Invents Act's first-inventor-to-file system, a claim is anticipated if the invention was patented, described in a printed publication, in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date. A one-year grace period exists for the inventor's own disclosures under section 102(b).
Example
An inventor's patent application for a new bicycle gear mechanism is rejected for lack of novelty when the examiner finds an identical mechanism described in a Japanese patent published three years before the filing date.