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Prior art (state of the art or background art〔"The expression 'background art' ... must have the same meaning as the more familiar expression 'prior art'" in (EPO Board of appeal decision T 11/82 of 15 April 1983 ), Headnote II and Reasons 15. See also (previously , where the term is used).〕), in most systems of patent law,〔See for example and 〕 constitutes all information that has been made available to the public in any form before a given date that might be relevant to a patent's claims of originality. If an invention 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, although 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 As a special exception, earlier-filed and unpublished patent applications do qualify as prior art as of their filing date in certain circumstances. To anticipate the subject-matter of a 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. Prior art generally does not include unpublished work or mere conversations (though according to the European Patent Convention, oral disclosures also form prior art—see ). It is disputed whether traditional knowledge (''e.g.,'' of medical properties of a certain plant) constitutes prior art. Patents disclose to society how an invention is practiced, in return for the right (during a limited term) to exclude others from manufacturing, selling, offering for sale or using the patented invention without the patentee's permission. Patent offices deal with prior art searches in the context of the patent granting procedure. ==Usage in litigation== Arguments claiming prior art are used in defending and attacking patent validity. In one U.S. case on the issue, the court said: :"One attacking the validity of a patent must present clear and convincing evidence establishing facts that lead to the legal conclusion of invalidity. 35 U.S.C. § 282. To establish invalidity under 35 U.S.C. § 103, certain factual predicates are required before the legal conclusion of obviousness or nonobviousness can be reached. The underlying factual determinations to be made are ::(1) the scope and content of the prior art; ::(2) the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art; ::(3) the level of ordinary skill in the art; and ::(4) objective evidence of non-obviousness, such as commercial success, long-felt but unsolved need, failure of others, copying, and unexpected results." :Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 17, 148 USPQ 459, 467 (1966).〔(Graham v. John Deere Co. of Kansas City ), 383 US 1, Sup. Ct., 1966.〕〔(Tokai Corp. v. Easton Enterprises ), Inc., 632 F. 3d 1358 at 1363-64, Ct. App. (Fed. Cir.), 2011.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Prior art」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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