This article discusses prior art in the patenting process.

1. Summary

Prior art is existing technology. Think of 'prior art' as essentially meaning 'prior technology.'

2. Prior Art in the Patenting Process

Prior art is used to determine if an invention is patentable.

One of the requirements to obtain a patent is that the invention is new (legal word novel). When an invention already exists in the prior art, the invention is not new and thus not patentable. In other words, since the invention is already known in the existing technology, the invention is not new and thus not patentable.

Additionally, another requirement of patentability is non-obviousness. To obtain a patent, the invention cannot be an obvious combination of existing inventions.

3. Grace Period

The U.S. has a one year grace period to protect the inventor's own work or work derived from the inventors from being prior art. See "How Long Do Have to File a Patent Application" for a more detailed description of this one year grace period.