“Does a tree falling in a forest make a sound? The answer to this epistemological cliché (and whether or not you care) depends on your philosophical leanings. Patent law has its own clear answer to the question. In UK patent law, the mere potential for prior public use to have been observed can deprive an invention of novelty. This principle can be a problem for inventors seeking to test prototypes of their inventions, and raises the question of how large, mechanical inventions can be tested without creating the potential (however small) for the invention to have been observed …” (more)
[Rose Hughes, The IPKat, 27 April]
First posted 2021-04-27 15:30:48
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