Technical advancement – a key to inventive step
Yes, technical advancement is indeed a key factor in evaluating the inventive step (or non-obviousness) of an invention in patent law. To meet the requirement for an inventive step, an invention must not be obvious to a person skilled in the relevant field of technology based on the prior art available at the time of filing. A key way to assess whether an invention has an inventive step is to examine whether the invention represents a technical advancement over what is already known.
Technical advancement refers to how an invention improves or innovates over existing technologies, solutions, or methods. When assessing whether an invention meets the inventive step requirement, the following points related to technical advancement are crucial:
a) Solving a Technical Problem in a New Way
The invention must address a technical problem that has not been previously solved by prior art, or it must solve an existing problem in a new and non-obvious way. A technical advancement demonstrates that the inventor has introduced a new approach or new technology to overcome a challenge.
b) Improvement Over Existing Solutions
A technical advancement can be seen in how an invention improves upon prior art by making it more efficient, cost-effective, or reliable. The improvement must go beyond what a skilled person would consider routine or obvious based on the existing state of the art.
c) Introducing New Technology or Concepts
Technical advancement also involves introducing novel technologies or concepts that were previously unknown or unexplored. This could include new materials, methods, or tools that are applied to solve a problem in a way that was not predictable based on prior art.
It is essential to distinguish between true technical advancement and routine innovation:
- Routine innovation is often a modification or combination of existing technologies in ways that are obvious to someone skilled in the field.
- Technical advancement, on the other hand, involves novel approaches or unpredictable solutions to technical problems that would not be obvious to someone skilled in the field.
Technical advancement plays a crucial role in meeting the inventive step requirement because it demonstrates that an invention offers a non-obvious solution to a technical problem. For an invention to be considered inventive, it must introduce a new and non-obvious way of solving a problem that represents a significant improvement over the existing state of the art.
In patent law, the technical advancement test ensures that patents are granted for genuine innovation, encouraging technological progress while avoiding patents for mere modifications of existing technologies.
