8.5.7.4 Does the Document Constitute a Single Source of Information

Date Published

Under s7(3), any prior art information used to establish a lack of inventive step has to be made publicly available in either:

  • a single document or through doing a single act; or
  • two or more related documents or doing two or more related acts, if the relationship between the documents or acts is such that a person skilled in the art would treat them as a single source of that information.

Some guidance on when two or more documents constitute a single source of information is provided in Nicaro Holdings Pty Ltd v Martin Engineering Co16 IPR 545. The conditions are the same as for novelty and are discussed in 5.6.4.4 Single Source of Information - Combination of Documents.

Amended Reasons

Amended Reason Date Amended

HTML cleanup for accessibility - removing empty unordered list elements

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