Question

PATENT LAW TRUE OR FALSE

An inventor is awarded a patent for a new product. Two years later, the inventor makes changes to the product and files a patent application for the revised product. The examiner can use the inventor’s patent as prior art to reject the patent application for the revised product. Explain.

Answer 1

True, the examiner can use the inventor’s patent as prior art to reject the patent application for the revised product. Prior art refers to all the public knowledge and inventions that existed before filing of the patent application. The patent shows that the invention already existed which is known to the public and hence the inventor can use the patent as a prior art. The patent would be granted only to the inventions that provide significant improvements over the prior art. The examiner can cancel the patent if the invention is not new or is a prior art. Novelty is the main requirement that needs to be satisfied to apply for patent and the examiner can determine the novelty and obviousness through the knowledge on the prior art. The prior art gets rejected by the examiner in most of the cases due to its relation with the prior invention.