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  • Patent Index 2020
Chapter VII – Inventive step
  1. Home
  2. Legal texts
  3. PCT-EPO Guidelines
  4. Table of Contents
  5. PCT Part G
  6. Chapter VII
  7. 3. Person skilled in the art
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3. Person skilled in the art

Overview

3. Person skilled in the art 

The "person skilled in the art" should be presumed to be a skilled practitioner in the relevant field of technology, who possesses average knowledge and ability and is aware of what was common general knowledge in the art at the relevant date. They should also be presumed to have had access to everything in the "prior art", in particular the documents cited in the search report, and to have had at their disposal the means and capacity for routine work and experimentation which are normal for the field of technology in question. If the problem prompts the person skilled in the art to seek its solution in another technical field, the specialist in that field is the person qualified to solve the problem. The skilled person is involved in constant development in their technical field.

GL/ISPE 13.11

3.1 Common general knowledge of the skilled person
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