IP Glossary: N

 12 May 2024

Novelty

A term used in patent and unregistered design law.

Patents:  It is one of the conditions for the grant of a patent (see s. 1 (1) (a) of the Patents Act 1977).  S.2 (1) provides:

“An invention shall be taken to be new if it does not form part of the state of the art.”

See “State of the art”

“Novelty” is also a condition for the registration of a design.  S.1B (1) provides:

“A design shall be protected by a right in a registered design to the extent that the design is new and has individual character.”

S.1B (2) adds:

“For the purposes of subsection (1) above, a design is new if no identical design or no design whose features differ only in immaterial details has been made available to the public before the relevant date.”


Novelty is a condition for the subsistence of a supplementary unregistered design,   Art 4 (1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 provides:


Art 5 adds:

“(1)  A design shall be considered to be new if no identical design has been made available to the public:

  1. in the case of a supplementary] unregistered... design, before the date on which the design for which protection is claimed has first been made available to the public;

(b)      . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(2) . Designs shall be deemed to be identical if their features differ only in immaterial details.”

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