Word.ws English Dictionary

Cripps question

Cripps question proper noun: a legal test as to whether an invention is obvious, based on whether a skilled person with existing knowledge could have invented it as a matter of routine.

Proper noun

the Cripps question

  1. A legal test as to whether an invention is obvious, based on whether a skilled person with existing knowledge could have invented it as a matter of routine.

Origin of Cripps question

Posed in the 1920s by Stafford Cripps in a British patent case about n-hexyl resorcinol, Sharp & Dohme Inc v Boots Pure Drug Company Ltd.

Questions about Cripps question

What does Cripps question mean?
Cripps question means a legal test as to whether an invention is obvious, based on whether a skilled person with existing knowledge could have invented it as a matter of routine.
What part of speech is Cripps question?
Cripps question is a proper noun.

Words near Cripps question in the dictionary

  1. crippling
  2. cripplingly
  3. cripplings
  4. cripply
  5. Cripps
  6. Cripps question
  7. crippunk
  8. cripqueer
  9. cripqueers
  10. crips
  11. Crips out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Cripps question (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Cripps question.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cripps_question. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.